PARADISE

(Wild Thing Anthology)

By

Meljean Brook

The Guardians Book 3

Chapter One

Will you tell the court the events leading up to the night of August twelfth?

He couldn't remember. Lucas Marsden glanced from the hammer in his right hand to the nail through the back of his left, and had no idea how he'd managed to pin himself to the backstage scaffolding-or why, despite his three years of law school and countless hours studying proper witness examination techniques, it was Perry Mason's made-for-TV query that echoed in his head.

Or why he answered it.

I was dismantling the set from our latest production at the Paradise Theater—The wound had stopped bleeding; pale skin healed over the head of the nail, embedding it into his flesh like a round hungry tick.—The Glass Menagerie, which was doing well until last month, when our lead actress, Olivia Jordan, was murdered.

And could you describe the nature o f this murder?

She was staked out in the forest, decapitated, and left to burn to ashes in the sun.

She wasn't just an actress, was she, Mr. Marsden? And her death is the reason why you've nailed yourself to a four-by-four…

And the reason why he was interrogating himself with leading questions. Jesus Christ. He wasn't as strong as he'd thought; the cow blood had already turned him into an idiot. With a shake of his head, Lucas focused.

Drops of perspiration gathered at the dark hair near his temples, over his brow. The scent of his blood lay heavy in the theater's stifling air. He'd not yet fed that evening; typically, the fragrance would have aroused the bloodlust… but a month without a living food source had slowed its response.

And, apparently, damaged his hearing and psychic senses—he did not notice the woman until she appeared in his peripheral view. Endless tanned legs, sun-streaked blond hair, and probably not even of legal age to drink.

Or to drink from.

Thank God his eyesight still functioned; Lucas wasn't as certain about his brain. He was suddenly grateful he was stuck to a postthe ache in his fangs told him the bloodlust had decided to rise, after all.

Fortunately, his flesh didn't react in the same way. She was edible, but obviously human. The last thing he needed was for the vampire community to learn he'd lost control and taken one.

His hearing worked, too: The even thrum of her heart reverberated in his ears.

Lucas frowned, struck by the peculiarity of that steady beat, the smoothness of her expression. She was alone in a pitch-black theater with a strange—and by no means small and harmless—man, and she didn't evince the slightest fear. Nor could he detect any in her psychic scent.

He couldn't sense anything from her. The animal blood must have muddled his ability to read her. Or she possessed a disturbing level of vapidity, and there was nothing to read.

"I'm sorry, miss," he said, forcing away his unease. How many gorgeous young women had arrived at the Paradise since Olivia had been killed? The drama department at Southern Oregon University was bursting with them, and he'd received several inquiries from actresses up in Portland and Seattle—all eager for a chance to tread the boards at one of Ashland's private stages. Granted, most of them did not come in at midnight, but he usually wasn't impaled on a nail. "The theater is closed until next season. We'll be holding auditions in October."

Her gaze held his before dropping to his hand, and his apprehension returned, knotting in his gut. His estimation of her age increased drastically. Those quiet blue eyes didn't belong to an insipid young woman… and no human could have made out his shape so clearly in the darkness.

"I'm not here for an audition," she said in a voice made of clarified honey: thick and sweet, the tones golden and clear. A smile deepened the indentation in her top lip, emphasized the lush curve of the bottom. A cupid's bow. He'd thought such lips were as mythical as their namesake, but now he realized that any vampire who'd encountered them had likely hidden the woman away and fed from her mouth for eternity.

She approached him slowly, as she might have a trapped animal. She wore those strappy sandal-things Olivia had sighed over in magazines, ordered, and then left in their boxes at the bottom of her closet. Wine-red ribbons wound from ankle to knee like a ballerina's slippers gone wild, the ends dancing the length of her sleek calves.

Her heels clicked against the floorboards. How had he not heard her come in?

"I'm here to help. Though I didn't expect it to take this form, or for you to need it so quickly."

Lucas looked up from her feet, swallowing hard. "Psychiatric help, I hope. I apparently suffer from a severe self-persecution complex."

"No." Her smile widened; her teeth formed a straight white line. No fangs.

Careful to keep his own from showing, Lucas pressed his lips together, bent his head, and concentrated as he returned the hammer to the loop in his carpenter's pants. It shook against his thigh before he steadied it and slid the handle through.

She wasn't a vampire; perhaps she'd grown up too quickly, and it had left that long-lived patience in her eyes.

He searched for another reason for her visit, and his addled mind came up with, "The air-conditioning system, then." It had failed earlier in the week, but Lucas hadn't found a repairman with an open schedule in the midst of the August heat wave.

"No." She stood next to him now. She was tall, her chin on level with his throat. Her gauzy white sleeve brushed his forearm as she lifted his hand from the hammer and studied the tremor in his fingers.

His palm was cool, and in the stagnant theater a light film of perspiration had settled over his skin. A human would call his touch cold, clammy; this woman didn't give any indication that she found it disgusting.

"How long have you had the shakes?"

Dark beads circled her neck, dripped between her breasts to her waist. Her burgundy shorts tied closed below her navel with a large bow; a wide satin band, around the hem of each leg held them tight against her upper thighs, the material between billowing slightly like a pair of old-fashioned bloomers.

But there was nothing old-fashioned or prudish about the long stretch of bare leg beneath.

"They started two days ago." He closed his eyes. Her skin was warm; lifeblood pulsed just beneath the surface of her upturned wrist. "You have to leave, miss. Now."

"You can't hurt me." A gentle prick at the flesh covering the nail in his opposite hand accompanied the statement. Tepid crimson blood trickled from the reopened wound. Surprised, he looked up again.

A dagger glinted in her hand before disappearing. Lucas blinked, certain he'd been mistaken.

"What would you say your mental faculties are at? Sixty percent? Seventy?" She pinched the head of the nail between her forefinger and thumb. The wood screeched as she pulled. Quick, merciful—he barely felt the rip of the flesh that had healed around it. She slanted a glance up at him and dropped the nail to the floor. "Are you typically so unresponsive? You haven't completely descended into `big dumb ox,' but hammering yourself to scaffolding doesn't venture into genius territory, either. What has it been, two weeks or so that you've been drinking the animal blood?"

He must be hallucinating. First Perry Mason, and now a ridiculously strong, impossibly perfect human who knew far too much about vampires. "A month."

Her head tilted as she regarded him; her lashes were thick and black. He couldn't smell any mascara. She didn't have any odor, except the light scent of sunshine and heat and blood.

"A month? That's an extraordinarily long time for a vampire to—" A crease formed between her dark golden brows. "Are you nosferatu-born?"

Nos feratu. A white naked hairless figure. Enormous and skittering out of nowhere in the depths of the cave: pointed ears, gleaming fangs. The tearing of flesh—Olivia's screams. A teenager in a monk's robe, wielding a sword.

The images flashed in front of him; this time Lucas was certain they didn't exist. It was a memory, a nightmare. One he'd had far too often in the twenty years since his transformation.

"Lucas? Are you well?" Her frown disrupted the bow of her lips. "Where's your partner?"

Dead. Grief and remembrance centered him. He wasn't a dizzy, drooling boy faced with a sexual fantasy come-to-life; he'd stop acting like one.

The pale skin on the back of his hand closed again. He wiped the blood onto his navy T-shirt and said flatly, "You know who I am. What I am."

She nodded slowly. She slid her thumbs into the front of her waistband; her fingers fanned across her lower abdomen. Her weight rested on her right leg, her hip cocked. Her relaxed posture didn't indicate wariness, but he could almost feel the speed and readiness coiled within that lithe frame.

"Yes. Lucas Marsden, formerly an officer with the Salem Police Department. A graduate of Willamette University's law school, and a prosecuting attorney for Marion County, but after two years, you gave up your position in the DA's office. Now, you are the owner of the Paradise Theater and head of the vampire community in Ashland, Oregon."

Probably not either for much longer. "But you aren't here looking for a role. Are you searching for immortality?"

If so, she'd arrived at exactly the right time; he was almost desperate enough to be reckless in selecting his new consort.

And if desperation weren't enough, the temptation in the slow curve of her lips might be. "No. I found that several centuries ago." She untucked her right thumb, held out her hand. "I'm Selah. I'm a Guardian."

"A Guardian." Lucas clasped her hand briefly. "And what is it you guard, Selah?"

"Humans, usually. But a lot of things have changed of late."

He arched a brow. "You protect vampires now?"

"Typically, I slay those who end up crossing my path." Before he could respond, she shook her head and continued, "Typically, those who cross my path are not part of a community, but are endangering humans."

His tension eased. He'd had to do the same to several rogues; and in the last three months, more than in the past twenty years combined.

"If you aren't here to kill us, then—" He stopped himself. Was he truly having this conversation? With a warm sun-kissed woman possessing a vampire's strength?

But her touch had been real; so was the unwavering blue stare she leveled at him. "I believe you have a demon in Ashland, Mr. Marsden, and I have every intention of slaying it." Her gaze swept his length. "But you won't be much help to me like this. Where's your partner, or someone you can feed from?"

A demon? How many holes did she think the animal blood had riddled in his brain? Lucas clenched his jaw, embarrassment and frustration rising hot within him. And anger, though—like the bloodlust—it was slow to respond. "I'll show you."

He didn't believe her.

Selah followed Lucas Marsden through the sleeping city. She'd scented his odor coming from a jeep parked in front of the theater, but they traveled on foot.

Was he testing her? If so, she was probably learning more of him than he was of her. He must be nosferatu-born; though tall and broad-shouldered, with a lean swimmer's build, those physical traits were only indicative of his human life. Normal vampires—those transformed by an exchange of blood with another vampirecouldn't have moved as swiftly as he did, no matter what their shape.

And it was a fine shape indeed. Selah watched it as she jogged along behind him, not bothering to conceal her appreciation. She hated walking, loathed running, and if she had to follow him at this between-hate-and-loathing pace, she might as well get as much pleasure as she could out of it.

If she teleported them there, it might have persuaded him that she spoke the truth. But Lucas was at the stage where he was aware he wasn't thinking clearly and so doubted his perception; such shock-and-awe tactics could push him over the edge and convince him she was nothing but a figment of his imagination.

Taking more time wouldn't hurt, and considering the direction they were heading, she suspected she wouldn't like what he had to show her.

She shook her head as they left the smooth pavement behind, entering a wooded area north of the city. The sharp fragrance of pine sap, the sweetness of ripening blackberries, and the rich scent of volcanic soil rose around her.

Her heels would catch on any protruding root; she vanished her shoes with regret and created boots that matched his. They clomped, though she tried to keep her steps light. God, she despised jogging.

Lucas turned to glance over his shoulder, his dark brows lifting in surprise. He no longer radiated anger and shame, but curiosity. Good. He wouldn't be difficult to work with, once he'd fed. A month of animal blood, but his shakes weren't in the advanced stages, his verbalization was coherent—it should only take one or two feedings for him to return to normal.

But no matter how handsome his face and figure, Selah hoped it wouldn't have to be from her. The last time she'd been a beautiful vampire's meal it had ended… badly.

Lucas came to a sudden halt, scenting the air. Tension gripped his form. Drawing up beside him, Selah caught it on the faint breeze, metallic and dark: vampire blood.

She focused, performed a psychic sweep of the forest around them. Only the Gate, resonating its soothing hum within her—and tinged by sulphur and rot. Nothing unexpected.

But a demon could hide its psychic presence from her. From both of them.

"Stay here," Lucas said softly. Without much apparent effort, he suppressed the trembling. His palm rested steadily on the hammer at his thigh.

He must be accustomed to his orders being followed; assuming her compliance, he took a step forward.

"Lucas." Selah stopped him with her hand on his forearm. The muscles were cool and hard beneath her fingers. She brought in a sword from her invisible cache of weapons; his breath caught when it appeared in her grip. "Have you any fencing experience?"

He stared at the sword for a long moment. His throat worked, and he swallowed before saying hoarsely, "I had to take on the part of Laertes for an evening."

"Stage fighting?" She smiled. How was it that almost everyone she knew—vampire, Guardian, or halfling demon—had such a dramatic streak? "We don't want to pretend to hurt him." A semiautomatic pistol replaced the sword. "Can you shoot?"

He recovered quickly. "It's been a while, but"—he took the gun from her, efficiently chambered a bullet—"yes."

"Aim for the head, especially the eyes. Shooting him won't kill him, but it will slow him down. Don't hesitate to use it. It might keep you alive until I can get to you. Go ahead; I'll be at your back." She could still watch for an attack from the front and protect them both if it came from behind.

Armed now, his attention never strayed from his search of the forest ahead of them. She'd always liked that in nosferatu-born vampires: their predatory instincts.

The crunch of pine needles was loud beneath their feet. There was no possibility of hiding their location with silence when they had to walk—he must have realized it, too.

"What are you? What's a Guardian?" he asked quietly, just as they came upon a break in the trees, allowing a glimpse of a small clearing.

A body lay in the center. The odor of blood was overpowering.

A vampire who hadn't yet fed might be distracted by such a strong scent; no vampire could control the bloodlust. And already, she could feel the hunger and need heightening within him.

With barely a thought, Selah formed her wings. The white feathers shone beneath the silvery moonlight, increasing her mass and providing a bright target. Hopefully, it would divert attention away from Lucas.

"We're like angels"—she slanted Lucas a quick glance, found him staring at her; his emotions slid from disbelief to wonder and fascination, underscored by wariness and the nascent heat of his bloodlust—" only much better."

Chapter Two

Pine needles and soil clung to the vampire's long hair as Lucas rolled the head over. Half-open brown eyes, round freckled face, fangs. "I don't recognize her."

Selah crouched beside the naked body, her wings in an arching sweep behind her. The tips trailed on the ground, and the sight of those pristine white feathers dragging through the dirt was almost offensive.

Almost. The death here was offensive; it eclipsed the reverence he might have otherwise felt, faced with such a being.

"These symbols…" she murmured to herself before looking up at him. "I've seen something like this before. Will you photograph her position before we move her? I want to look around, see if he's written anything anywhere else."

"Yes, but—" He broke off as a digital camera appeared in her hand. Taking it, he lowered to his heels next to her. "Where have you seen them?"

Symbols had been carved into the vampire's flesh; some geometric in shape, others curving in a macabre script. He hadn't found Olivia's remains until after she'd disintegrated into ash. Had this been her fate as well?

Selah's gaze rested on his face. Lucas glanced away, but was certain he could not hide his anger-laden frustration from her.

"It was in San Francisco," she said quietly. "In May, a series of ritualized murders. The media coverage was extensive—you must have seen it."

"Yes. You're speaking of the cult of humans who'd tried to become vampires." Two university students and one professor had been dismembered and mutilated; four more students had been rescued from sacrifice at the last moment.

And in the same month, dozens of vampires had flooded into Ashland from San Francisco, stretching resources and tempers. Many had reports of enormous blood-drinking creatures—who weren't vampires—slaughtering the city's elders. Most had left Oregon shortly after the media had reported an end to the ritual slayings.

Lucas had been forced to kill several who hadn't had a bloodsharing partner and refused to take animal blood until they'd found one. Maddened and starving, they'd attacked other vampires in the community for blood; it wouldn't have been long before they'd turned to humans for feeding.

The camera's flash left bright spots behind his eyes. Gathering evidence, but there was no need to establish a chain of possession, no need to follow official collection methods. There would never be a police investigation, no trial, no sentence—except that which Lucas conferred.

"There was no cult. A horde of nosferatu tried to make a bargain with a demon—with Lucifer. The story in the media was just a cover."

He understood the last bit; the truth had to be hidden from humans. But to believe that Lucifer… ?

As if anticipating his doubt, she caught his gaze. Unfolding her wings, she waved them a little and lifted her brows.

Lucas bit back his smile when the feathers' movement stirred the scent of blood and death.

Tamping down the bloodlust did not prove so easy.

"Anyway, Lucifer failed," she continued, rising to her feet and walking a slow circuit around Lucas and the body. "And he lost a wager; the Gates to Hell are closed for five hundred years. But a couple of hundred demons fled Hell before they could be trapped in that realm."

"And you think it was one of those demons who killed her?" White light illuminated the vampire's gaping neck. No ragged skin. The edges of the wound were too clean to have been made by a knife or saw. Perhaps an ax… or a sword. Lucas looked up. Selah was kneeling near the decapitated head; she touched the ground, brought her fingers to her nose and sniffed.

"I'm not sure," she said, frowning. "Lucifer didn't share knowledge of his magic. I'm surprised that another demon would know to use the symbols. On the other hand, that it's a vampire lying herein copious amounts of her own blood—makes me think that it must be a demon who murdered her."

"Why is that?"

"The Rules forbid demons and Guardians from killing humans, but we can kill vampires." She stood, surveyed the clearing with her hands on her hips. "And she wasn't raped. Demons can simulate sex, but they have no sexual drive. Nosferatu and vampires do, particularly when blood is involved. A nosferatu would have torn her apart rather than have sex with her. And nosferatu and vampires aren't bound by the Rules, so if it had been either, I would've expected to find humans here and the blood missing. But instead of that, I find decapitation and the remains of five vampires: this one, and the ashes of four others."

His brows drew together. "Four?"

"Yes." She watched him quietly before asking, "One was your partner?"

"Yes."

"You have no one else to feed from?"

Resignation tinged her question; Lucas bristled at the realization. "I did not ask you—"

"You don't have to." She sighed, took a last look around. "Do you need to examine the body further?"

"No." His teeth clenched, and he rose abruptly to his feet. Spots danced wildly around his vision.

The vampire and her head vanished from the ground, and the odor of her blood disappeared. Selah shuddered. Disgust emanated from her psychic scent, and she wiped her hands down the sides of her shorts. "I'm taking her to San Francisco. I can't read the symbols, but I have two colleagues who can. Would you like to accompany me?"

Three hundred and fifty miles? Lucas eyed her wings doubtfully. "You'd have to be very fast." Dawn was only five hours away. As soon as the sun rose, whether he was protected from its burning rays or vulnerable, he'd succumb to the daysleep; he couldn't awaken until it set again.

Unless a trip had been carefully planned or the reason for traveling dire, few vampires went far from home.

"I can fly the distance in half an hour—but we won't go that way." Amusement creased the corners of her mouth, though she didn't give, voice to it. "I promise I'll have you back home before curfew."

He blinked. Was she flirting with him? Or ridiculing him for his hesitation?

And what had he descended into, that he couldn't trust his interpretation of a woman's tone?

He must have projected his confusion; Selah tilted her head, brushing her hair back over her shoulder and exposing the long sweep of her neck. "You need to feed first, though. You're hungry, and your mental faculties will be sharper after you've eaten."

She was right. He knew it, but he replied stiffly, "I'm fine."

Her features softened; he didn't know if it was with understanding or pity. "Trust me," she said. Her dark lashes swept down, but not before he saw the sudden sparkle of humor in her eyes. "You don't want to meet with my colleagues with your head at seventy or sixty percent. They can be… difficult."

So could the bloodlust. So could desire and grief and a sense of duty. He'd experienced "difficult"—nothing this quiet woman had to throw at him could be worse. "No."

He sensed a brief flare of irritation from her before she shrugged; her wings swayed with the movement. "Very well. I won't force you. Are you ready?"

"Y—" Lucas didn't see her move, only felt the warmth of her hand on his arm. The world rolled dizzily around him.

When it stopped, there was concrete under his feet. "Yes," he finished, and decided that he might just vomit on it.

If she had been flirting with him, she wasn't likely to continue in about a second.

Teleporting always thrilled Selah—not so her passengers. It hit Lucas worse than most: the animal blood intensified the disorientation. He shook off her hand and staggered toward the wall, bracing his forearm against it, his shoulders heaving.

He was probably glad he hadn't yet fed that night.

After bringing in her cell phone from her cache, she dialed Hugh's number and listened to Lucas's deep, steadying breaths as it rang. He turned to face her again, his gaze narrowing on the phone as Hugh answered. Nosferatu-born, Lucas was able to hear both ends of the conversation.

"Selah."

"I found a dead vampire near the Gate. I'm at the warehouse with Marsden," she said and hung up, then vanished the phone. Hugh had been her mentor for a hundred years; they'd worked together two and a half centuries. There was no need for more explanation than that. "They'll be here in about twenty minutes."

Lucas looked away from her, ran his hand over the nail-pocked surface of the unfinished wall. Eventually, this room would be an office; now, it was a collection of sawdust, drywall, and exposed wiring.

"We're in San Francisco?" He angled his head, and his eyes unfocused, as if he listened to the noise from outside the warehouse.

"Yes. In the Department of Homeland Security's soon-to-be-finished Special Investigations headquarters. Hugh Castleford—who you just heard me speak with—and his partner, Lilith, will be directing operations here."

Tucking her thumbs into the front of her shorts, she watched him circle the room. He moved quietly, like a man accustomed to observing in a manner that didn't draw attention to himself. Predators moved that way.

Most of them.

He glanced back at her. His black hair was overlong and slightly curling, as if he hadn't bothered to cut it in the past few years, and it fell in a thick uneven wave across his forehead with the movement. "What type of operations?"

"Acting as liaison between Caelum and Earth. Tracking down any rogue demons that have escaped Hell and hopefully slay them. Keeping knowledge of our kind from humans—beyond the few in Washington, D.C., who know of us, that is."

He turned, slowly approached her. His hands were broad, strong. His fingers were trembling again. "Caelum?" He formed the word carefully, as if he wasn't certain he'd heard it correctly. His fangs gleamed sharp behind the firmness of his lips.

Her mouth dried. "It's the Guardians' home. In a different realm than Earth. Like Hell, or Chaos—"

She broke off, closing her eyes. Chaos. Some days, she could still hear the screams.

But they were not so terrible compared with what had befallen the vampire whom she'd teleported there—the vampire whom she hadn't had the strength to teleport back out.

And she didn't want to think about Chaos now, when in a couple of hours she'd very likely be feeding another vampire.

Silence hung between them. When she looked up at him, he was studying her face. His eyes were a moss green; how strange that such a soft color could be so direct.

"You can"—he hesitated for an instant—" `jump' anywhere? On Earth and between these realms?"

"Teleport. Yes."

"Show me this Caelum," he said softly.

Shaking her head, she said, "It's very sunny."

His lips tilted, but he didn't return her smile. Instead, he stepped close enough that she had to tip her head back. "Why did we come here? Obviously this facility isn't ready for a postmortem examination. Why not take me directly to your colleague's location? Why waste twenty minutes?"

Because she didn't like to hop unannounced into people's homes. Because Lilith and her hellhound might not have appreciated a strange vampire suddenly appearing in their living room. But primarily—"Because I don't know you."

His brows rose. "You're going to use this time to learn about me?"

She doubted twenty minutes would suffice for that. "You didn't feed. I don't know you well enough to determine whether you'd have control when I take the body and the blood out of my cache."

A muscle in his jaw worked; the roughly hewn planes of his cheeks flushed with color. Despite his anger, he didn't argue. Stubborn, but he recognized it within himself and accepted the consequences of the choices he made.

"And if I lose control here?"

"I'll teleport you to safety," she said.

He blinked in surprise.

"I would've at their house, too," she explained, "but if I have to stop Lilith from killing you, I'd rather do it here. It's neutral ground. She might consider it an insult if I save you from her at her own house." A mischievous grin pulled at her lips. She fought to subdue it and only partially succeeded. "Which is almost reason enough to take you there and hope you go insane with hunger, but not quite."

His gaze dropped to her mouth. His bloodlust swelled, a heated caress over her nerves before he strengthened his psychic shields. It wasn't burning—not yet—but he couldn't completely conceal it, either.

Why was he so adamantly opposed to taking her blood? His grief was deep, but not tinged with the excruciating pain and loneliness she'd sensed from countless widowers and separated lovers over the centuries.

He dragged in a lungful of air; during his long silence, he hadn't been breathing. A rarity among vampires and Guardians—most did it automatically, a habit left over from life.

"I think I might already be insane," he said. His focus shifted from her face to her wings. His hand rose over her shoulder, but he paused before touching them. "May I?"

She nodded, her lips parting in a quiet assent. His shirt stretched across his chest as he reached; he smelled of lumber and pine.

The frame of her wings jutted up from her shoulder blades, rounded and thick with muscle at the base, tapering into the arch. His cool fingers trailed along the sensitive, downy surface. She couldn't quite stifle the shiver that raced over her skin.

His eyes met hers, his lashes crinkling together in amusement. His psychic scent held a hint of masculine interest. Animal blood suppressed libido; once he'd fed, how potent would it be? "Ticklish?"

A short laugh escaped her. Her reaction hadn't confused him that much. "Something like that."

"You said that you found immortality. You used to be human?" His arm at full extension, he smoothed his hand through the feathers meshed together at her left wing's apex, two feet above her head.

She resisted the urge to fold them closed, trap his hand between them. "Once."

"I assume this isn't the result of being bitten by a bird. Or biting one."

His lashes lowered as his gaze dropped to her neck. He quickly stepped back, crossing his arms over his chest.

The effect of his touch lingered; her skin felt tight, cold. Her body warmed in response, a slow rising heat. "No. They aren't animal in nature."

"Angelic?" The tips of his fangs appeared briefly.

"Yes." Selah shifted her weight to her right leg; the boots were heavy, clunky. Rocking up onto her toes, she changed them back to her ribboned heels. When she lowered to the ground, she was only an inch or two shorter than Lucas again. "Guardians aren't angels, though the powers we receive during transformation originated in Heaven. The Guardian corps was formed to take the angels' place, protecting humans from demons and nosferatu."

He blinked. After a quick glance at her feet, he examined her face. "How long ago?"

"At least two thousand years." She didn't know for certain. In Caelum's library was an archive of Scrolls detailing the Guardians' history—but they didn't tell all of it. Only Michael, the first Guardian, knew what had occurred after the angels had relinquished Caelum to him and before the Scrolls had been recorded.

"Two thou—" Lucas shook his head. "How could we not have met with your kind before?"

"Most vampires haven't, but you must have," she said. "You're nosferatu-born, but a nosferatu would never have left a human alive. A Guardian must have interfered, and saved you—made you drink the blood."

"You?" Even as he asked, he knew it hadn't been Selah.

The cave. A youth in a monk's robe—but no wings. A flashing sword.

"No. I've arrived early enough to slay a nosferatu before he could kill a human, and I've been too late. But never at the critical moment, when the nosferatu's blood is the difference between life and death." And she'd never have forgotten turning Lucas, even if she'd transformed hundreds. "How old are you?" Hugh hadn't been specific about dates when he'd given her Lucas's background information.

"In human years, fifty-five. I've been a vampire twenty."

She absently ran her fingers the length of her beads, thinking. After World War II, Hugh had operated primarily in the western United States. He might know who had transformed Lucas. She could discover more about him from that Guardian-assuming, of course, he hadn't been a part of the mass Ascension that had reduced their number.

Twenty years. Not long, but he'd taken over leadership of the Ashland community. His strength couldn't completely account for that; if he hadn't been successful, the vampires would have removed him. A community could be vicious when it perceived its leadership as weak.

Confidence, then. Intelligence. Both dulled by the use of animal blood, yet he hadn't taken a new consort and secured his position. And he resisted feeding from her, even though it would halt the degenerative effects.

Selah met his eyes; he returned her stare with an expectant lift of his brow. Realizing that he was waiting for her response, she belatedly offered, "I was born in sixteen hundred and eighty four. In what's now Maine."

And lived the whole of her life in one settlement, never venturing five miles beyond the bed she'd been birthed in.

A Guardian's Gift reflected their human life; Selah couldn't have been more grateful for the one she'd received. She could escape from and go anywhere, just on a thought.

Except to and from Chaos.

Only the slight clench of Lucas's hands betrayed his shock. "You're older than any vampire I've met."

"That doesn't surprise me. There aren't many who've lived more than a century or two." Nosferatu and demons slaughtered vampires like livestock; only in the last hundred and fifty years had the vampire population expanded. Ashland's community of thirty vampires was small—but a century ago, Selah would have been hardpressed to find such a large group in Paris, London, or New York.

Apparently, her statement didn't contradict anything he'd heard. He nodded, and his gaze slid her length. The bloodlust flared before he repressed it. It came more frequently now—and each was successively stronger than the last. "You must have been young. Twentytwo? Twenty-three?"

She shook her head. With demons and Guardians, appearances were almost always deceiving. "No. I was transformed in the mideighteenth century."

His brows drew together, frustration hardening his jaw; obviously, he didn't trust the calculation he'd made. She saw the moment he accepted the number: His mouth dropped open.

Smiling, she took a step forward, tapped his chin up with her forefinger. His teeth snapped together.

"I promise not to pinch your cheek, if you promise not to call me Grandmama," she said. "I had enough of that when.I was human."

Chapter Three

It took the remainder of the twenty minutes for Selah to recount the origin of the Guardian corps to him. Lucas listened in silence, trying to take it all in—and certain the mental overload he was experiencing had little to do with the animal blood.

The first part held little surprises; he'd heard the story countless times. Lucifer, an angel, led a failed rebellion against Heaven. As punishment, he and his companions had been transformed into demons and thrown down to Hell.

More difficult to believe was that the nosferatu had also been angels, but had abstained from taking sides during the battle. They had been tossed from Heaven along with the Morningstar and his cohorts; but instead of taking up residence Below, He had cursed the nosferatu with bloodlust and vulnerability to daylight and cast them to Earth.

Lucas rubbed his forehead. "But wouldn't nosferatu endanger the humans who lived here? Why would He send them to Earth?"

A smile quirked Selah's mouth, and she disappeared, instantaneously arriving a few feet from where she'd been standing. "Avoiding the lightning," she said when he raised a brow.

He glanced uneasily upward.

Her laughter was soft, and her feathers rustled slightly when she shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know. Angels protected Earth then. Perhaps there wasn't any danger; perhaps angels were always on time. And both demons and angels slaughtered nosferatu whenever they found them. Those that are left usually hide in caves or underground. Angels—now Guardians—and demons have hunted them almost to extinction. Both sides are rather unforgiving. Though," she added, "it's with good reason. Without exception, nosferatu love the kill. So do demons, but they can't hurt or kill humans. Demons are as evil, just less the immediate threat."

"But not to vampires."

Her gaze was direct. "No. Not to vampires. But that's why we're here."

Guardians. Lucas shoved his hands into his pockets and crossed the room. Opaque plastic covered an unfinished window. He pulled it to the side. The buildings around them were in poor repair… not what he'd have expected for beings who said they were connected with Heaven.

"Caelum isn't Heaven?"

"No. Not in the sense that you're probably thinking of it."

He smiled slightly, glancing down at the buckling asphalt in the fenced parking lot. "No streets paved with gold? A chorus of angels singing in the background?"

Amusement lightened her voice. "Hardly. Though angels once lived there, I don't know that they sang."

"Why leave?"

"According to the Scrolls, the angels who protected Earth could take human shapes, but mankind never mistook them for something human. More like gods."

Recalling the astonishment and awe that had torn through him at the first glimpse of her wings, Lucas could easily believe it. "Have you seen one?"

"No. They left Earth after the Second Battle. I don't even know that Michael—the first Guardian—has actually seen an angel."

"The Second Battle?"

"Lucifer took exception to his former brethren being perceived as gods—so he led his demons against the angels in a second war, with Earth the battlefield," Selah said from behind him. Closer now. "And brought creatures he'd summoned from the Chaos realm with him. A dragon, and hellhounds that he bred from wyrmwolves. They slaughtered the angels."

Her voice was strained, just as it had been the first time she'd mentioned Chaos. Lucas would have asked more about that realm, but was distracted when a large dog trotted into the lot, his nails clicking against the asphalt. It was huge, but its size didn't account for the sudden uneasiness that slid through him.

He shook himself when, like any other dog would, it headed to the garbage Dumpster and began to sniff around the bottom. Perhaps it was mention of these creatures, combined with the animal blood. He was beginning to see demons and monsters everywhere.

"The angels were losing? What happened to change that?"

"Men joined on the side of the angels and helped defeat the demons. One—Michael, who killed the dragon—was given angelic powers and access to Caelum. And he created the Guardian corps, because we can protect, but also pass as human. We still are human, in many ways." Her tone changed; wry humor darkened the honeyed notes.

He turned, found Selah watching him. Her gaze lifted to his; her blue eyes sparkled.

Not watching him—she'd been ogling him.

It had been a while since that had happened. And despite her age, ogling her in return made him feel like a dirty old man. He pulled his hand through his hair. Thick, still black—he only had to look into a mirror to confirm that at least he didn't look like a dirty old man.

A glance at his dusty boots, his stained pants and shirt made him amend it to "old man."

But she obviously found him attractive. The knowledge had more effect on him than the bloodlust—and now it was rising, too. He swallowed to ease the sudden thirst. His body did not harden, but the tips of his fangs ached. He caressed them, soothed them with the flat of his tongue.

The laughter slowly left her gaze, replaced by heat. Then frustration, as she cocked her head.

"They're almost here." Her expression smoothed. Her shirt and shorts vanished; she exchanged them for a white gown. The material gathered over her shoulders and at her waist like a toga. Her ribboned shoes peeked beneath the hem at her ankles.

He listened, but it took a few more moments before he heard it: the sharp whine of a motorcycle engine, the deep purr of an expensive, powerful car motor.

"Colin must be with them." She shook her head. "They're racing."

Lucas looked out the window, surprised. "They can't teleport here?"

"No. Teleportation is my Gift; I'm one of two Guardians who can."

He glanced back at her wings. "Why not fly?"

"They aren't Guardians."

There was a screech of tires, and a Bentley careened into the lot. A motorcycle followed, narrowly missing the car's bumper as it sped past. Then another motorcycle, at a slightly more sedate speed.

His psychic probe revealed nothing from any of them. "What are they?"

She joined him at the window and pointed to the dark-haired man on the second motorcycle. "That's Hugh Castleford. He used to be a Guardian, but he Fell and became a human again. Colin Ames-Beaumont—the blond in the car—is a vampire. Kind of. The woman is Lilith, and there's her hellhound."

The woman had long, black hair, wore leather pants and a tight corset. The giant dog ran up to her. Lucas blinked… then blinked again, but he hadn't been mistaken. It had three heads now. "What is she?"

Selah sighed. "Lucifer's daughter."

"Selah, my dear," Colin said as he leaned over and pressed a warm kiss to her cheek. "The shoes are positively smashing, but the gown is on par with the bloody horrid sack Castleford used to wear."

His voice lowered below a whisper; only Selah could have heard him. And Lucas, but he was still staring dumbstruck at Colin's face. She couldn't blame him—it had taken several days before Colin's impossible beauty had stopped having the same effect on Selah. Fortunately, she'd had her eyes closed much of the time, pretending to be unconscious whenever he'd fed from her.

"Confess. You only wear it to irritate Lilith."

She looked past him. Lilith and Hugh were poring over the vampire's corpse; the former demon's features were set, the line of her body taut as she read the symbols. Lilith's shields prevented Selah from sensing her emotions, but it was easy enough to see that Lilith was as troubled as Selah was by the vampire's fate—and that Lilith was determined it wouldn't happen again.

"Sometimes," Selah admitted. "Not today."

Colin turned, examined Lucas with a quick glance. "He thinks me beautiful. Therefore, I've decided that I shall like him very much."

With a visible shake, Lucas gathered himself. "I'm not certain," he said slowly, "whether I should fall at your feet and beg for your blood or ask Selah to teleport me away as quickly as possible. I think the second."

Fighting laughter, Selah averted her face and tried to keep her ex pression impassive. Despite the awe the blond vampire's appearanc( elicited, he'd read Colin perfectly.

"You're obviously not an idiot yet," Lilith said as she stood. "Bul it won't be long." She looked at Selah. "Are you going to feed him: Given what I've just read, we can't waste a nosferatu-born vampire's strength."

Flat denial radiated from Lucas's psyche, stiffened his long frame.

Selah bit off her angry response. Nothing was going to make Lilith tactful, and the insulting manner of her delivery didn't mean she wasn't right. "Yes. What did it say?"

"I won't be certain until I can confirm it with Michael, but l think the ritual is designed to change the resonance of the Gate, linking it to Hell instead of Caelum. Half of the symbols reference the Gates, and the rest are about transformation."

Lucas's jaw clenched. He stared at Selah a moment before he said, "I was told Lucifer had been required by a wager to keep the Gates to Hell closed for five hundred years."

"Yes," Selah said quietly. "But he might be trying to twist the terms of the wager. He closed the Gates, fulfilling his part in it—but if he were to create a new Gate, it wouldn't be included in the wager."

"A Gate to Hell in your backyard," Lilith said. "And it would be the only Gate. Every demon going in and out would travel through Ashland."

Hugh met Selah's gaze. "Has the effect on the Gate increased since this last ritual?"

She nodded. "I can still sense Caelum, but it feels… off. Rotted around the edges. Worse than it was last week, when Jake first noticed it."

The young Guardian had used the Gate to travel from Caelum to Earth. Except for Michael and Selah, every Guardian had to move between the two realms using one of the portals. The Gate in Ashland was the nearest one to San Francisco—once this facility was completed, they'd be using the portal regularly.

But an increase in flight distance was hardly as alarming as the thought that Lucifer might have access to Earth again.

Hugh slid his hands into his pockets and glanced at Lilith. Neither had psychic abilities, but they might as well have communicated. A single look, and they agreed upon a course.

"Selah, you'll stay in Ashland," Hugh said. "Find the demon, kill it. Make certain it doesn't take any more vampires."

"Yes." Nothing different than what she'd intended. Lucas watched her, his eyes dark beneath his brows. "I'll benefit from your assistance," she said. "You know the community."

His expression was like iron, but he gave a short nod.

Lilith gestured to the dead vampire. "Did you know this one?"

"No."

Colin strode across the room and lifted the head by its tangle of hair. "I've seen her. It's been four or five years, perhaps."

"Here, in San Francisco?"

"Yes. She had a partner. A youngish bloke, if I recall correctly. Auburn hair, tattered denim jacket. They ran into me near Polidori's nightclub, protested my feeding from a human." He dropped the head back to the floor; his teeth flashed in a sharp grin, startling white against his tanned skin. "Protested until they got a look at me, that is. Then they wanted their turn."

Lucas went rigid. "You feed from humans?"

"They enjoy it," Colin said easily. "Quite a bit. Ask Selah; even chained to a bed, she thought it a wonderful experience."

Her lips pursed. "It might have been good. I barely remember." Only what came after.

Colin arched a brow at Lucas; his gray eyes glinted with laughter when Lucas quickly repressed his anger—and his bloodlust. "She saved me from the animal blood, too. She's quite adept at sacrificing herself for the cause, no matter the trouble it lands her in." His features darkened at the last.

"All Guardians are," Lilith said. "Martyrdom is a requirement for the job."

Selah closed her eyes and prayed for patience.

"Selah." Hugh's voice immediately calmed her. Though she hardly understood some of the choices he'd made, he still understood her. Maybe too well. "We'll speak tomorrow?"

"Yes. I'll find you at noon." She drew in a long breath then looked at Lucas. "Are you ready to go?"

For a second, she was certain he was going to walk out and find his own way back to Ashland. His gaze ran over her, then to Colin… and the corpse. "Yes," he said tightly.

Had she ever been so glad to leave a place—even Chaos? But at least this time, she was able to take the vampire back with her.

Chapter Four

Lucas thought he was better prepared for teleportation, but the forest clearing still quaked at the edges of his perception when they arrived.

Selah released him. The mild expression that had overtaken her features in San Francisco sharpened into concern when he swayed on his feet, but he waved her hand off.

It dropped to her side, fisted.

He swallowed and forced himself to steady. "Why are we here?"

The scent of the vampire's blood exploded around him, appearing from nowhere and quickly soaking into the ground. Selah shuddered. "I wanted it out of my cache. This is the best place to dump it. And I thought I'd show you the Gate's location."

The rich fragrance coated his lungs, his mouth, his tongue. His gaze narrowed as she turned. Instinct demanded that he pursue her. He fought it, but couldn't tear his eyes from her hips, their supple roll.

Her wings were outstretched. She'd shed her gown and replaced it with the clothing she'd worn earlier.

Ribbons dangled and fluttered behind her knees, her calves.

"Here," she said, stopping at the northern edge of the clearing. She lifted her arm out in front of her.

Her hand and wrist disappeared.

The blood wasn't so overpowering when he moved away from it. He stood beside her and remained silent so that he wouldn't have to breathe.

"It won't do anything to you," she said.

And it didn't; his hand remained intact. He looked at her wrist, saw the cross-section of bones and veins and muscle as if it had been sheared through with a blade. Though she held herself still, the tissues quivered: motion at a cellular level, and the flow of blood. Life at its most basic, but it was… disturbing.

Her brow arched when he responded with a grimace. "That's why I like to 'port," she said dryly and pulled her arm back. "A novice in Caelum was probably wondering why a disembodied hand was waving at her."

His laughter caught him by surprise. Her, too. She blinked before smiling; her eyes were clear and blue, bright with humor. So different from her attitude when she was with her colleagues, when emotion had fallen awkwardly over her features and was swept away like litter.

Too soon, her amusement faded, and she sighed. "A portal to Hell is most often created by human sacrifice—less frequently, at a site of violent human death and negative energy. There is… was a Gate to Hell in San Francisco like that."

"But this isn't human sacrifice."

"No. A demon can't kill a human; perhaps that's why he's using vampires to transform an existing Gate instead of making a new one."

Lucas turned, examined the distance to the center of the clearing. "Why isn't he performing the murders over here?"

Her brow furrowed. "Demons can only sense Hell's Gates, and Guardians only Caelum's. He must have followed a Guardian at some point—most likely a novice. He wouldn't have wanted to let slip his presence by getting close enough to see exactly where the Gate was. And apparently, it doesn't have to be right on top of the Gate, because the rituals are working."

"And this one? Was it created the same way?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. And though Guardians are linked to them by sacrifice, it's their own sacrifice, and it's a willing one."

Lucas frowned. Martyrdom is a requirement for the job, Lucifer's daughter had said. He'd assumed from Selah's exasperation—one of the few emotional responses she'd allowed to slip through her psychic shields when they'd been in San Francisco—that the comment had simply been an overused jab, or a joke Selah had heard too many times. "What kind of sacrifice?"

Her gaze was steady on his face as her hand rose to her neck, and her fingers ran along the beads. She'd done that before, just prior to telling him her age. Did she always hesitate and debate the consequences before revealing anything of herself?

She pulled the length of the necklace away from her chest, let it drop. "A Guardian has to willingly sacrifice herself saving another human's life—or soul—from a demon or nosferatu." Her lips pursed. "Or vampire. Mine was a demon."

In the mid-eighteenth century. "What happened?"

"We—I lived with my daughter and granddaughter—quartered an injured soldier while their husbands were off fighting the French in the Seven Years' War." Her brows arched, and the tilt of her eyes suggested that she was laughing at herself.

"But he wasn't a soldier," Lucas guessed. "Do you think you should have recognized him for what he was?"

"No. It is just…" She trailed off and blinked up at him. "It's odd to remember those days. I was a widow, more than seventy years of age, and my life was incredibly different. It's as if I'm speaking of someone else." She studied him for a moment, her blue eyes piercing, intense. "You didn't."

He held her gaze, took a step forward. "Didn't… separate my human life from this one?"

Her chin lifted slightly at his approach, her lips parting gently to form that soft, perfect bow. "Yes."

No, he hadn't. But there were differences that ran deeper than a liquid diet and an aversion to daylight, and too much of himself that he'd pushed even more deeply. "Not completely."

Hardly an answer, but she nodded and blew out a breath, her focus turning inward. "My granddaughter, Mary, had a little boy, not yet six months old. She'd been suffering from melancholy postpartum depression, I imagine—and was the perfect target for a demon."

It took him a moment to realize what she meant. "To manipulate the depression into something else? Murder?"

"Or suicide. The demon was good—he nearly got both. Luckily, his arrogance got the better of him. He was bragging of his victory before she'd followed through on it. But we were still almost too late."

"Almost?" he asked in a low voice.

Her lashes fell, hiding her eyes, and she looked down at her hands. "She went to the river. My daughter took the baby, but Mary just… jumped in."

"And you went after her?"

"Yes." She smiled faintly, brushing a lock of hair back from her forehead. "I didn't stop and think about it overmuch. And by the time I reached Mary, she'd changed her mind." She pressed her lips together, but the corners curved upward despite her attempt to repress a smile. "She was a good girl, but slow sometimes. The river's current was not slow, however—and it was cold. We'd brought a rope, and my daughter was trying to pull us out, but she couldn't pull two. And I was tired." Her chest rose and fell on a long sigh. "Very tired."

His gut twisted into a tight, heavy knot. "So you let go."

"So I let go," she echoed. "And Michael picked me up about a mile downriver."

"Jesus." He had no idea what else to say to that. "But they were saved?"

"Yes. And it wasn't too bad. I had a nice nap." She invited his smile with her own. "I imagine it's better than being attacked by a nosferatu."

The tips of his fangs pressed against his lips when he returned the smile. "Perhaps. I've heard fish had big teeth back then."

She laughed softly. "Enormous. Shall we go?" Her fingers brushed his forearm. "Dawn is but a couple of hours away, and you need to eat."

His amusement died a quick and violent death. "We'll go, but not for that. We'll look for your demon and be rid of him."

She tilted her head to the right, studying him; the beads clinked softly against the inside swell of her breasts. Beneath the dark circle they made around her neck, he could see—feel—the pulsing through her veins. "We probably won't find him tonight. It'll strengthen you for when we do."

Look anywhere but at her, he told himself. He stared over her shoulder, past the wings. The depths of the forest were dark. With his preternatural sight, he should have been able to see clearly into them.

"I don't want this sacrifice from you," he said tautly.

"It's not a sacrifice. It's freely given." Her voice hardened. "What happened to that girl is a sacrifice."

To Olivia, too. For twenty years. "Do you want to do everything that goes along with it? Is that given freely, too?" He crowded close and showed his fangs. "If you desire me, the bloodlust will take over. I'll fuck you. Once I've begun feeding, I won't be able to stop myself."

"I can stop you," she said quietly. Her gaze held his before it lowered, skimming his length, pausing at his groin.

Still no reaction from his flesh; thank God for the animal blood.

Her jaw firmed, and she glanced back up. "And if I had a choice, no, I wouldn't do it. Not right away. I'd wait until I knew you better. But I don't have one. Neither do you. You're shaky; from this point on, the degeneration is quick if you don't take living blood. Can you protect your community like that?"

No. "I don't want it," he repeated from between clenched teeth.

Her face became shuttered. Her wings vanished. "We're too vulnerable here. Would you feel more comfortable feeding at your house?"

In his home? In his bed—with a woman who was there because she had to. Because of duty. He stared at her, his rage and humiliation warring with his bloodlust. Anger won. He turned and stalked across the clearing.

From behind him, he heard her sigh. His next step sent him crashing against her. Her hands cupped his jaw.

Jesus Christ, she was unbelievably strong. To his astonishment, he couldn't pull away.

She shoved her thumb into his mouth, slicing it on his fangs. Her blood flowed over his tongue, a brilliant shock of light and rich, heady life after a month without flavor.

And so warm.

Not enough of it. The wounds were closing, the liquid trickling to nothing. He slashed through the vein in the heel of her hand and drank in rough swallows.

The ground dropped from under his feet. She withdrew her hand; he grasped at it, growls tearing from his chest, his throat. His knees folded beneath him, sank into his mattress.

His bedroom?

Selah stood in front of him, her heels digging craters into the sheets. Her lips were parted. Her breasts moved in time with her quick breaths, her nipples peaked against the gauzy shirt.

The hunger roared within him; impossible to resist it now that he'd had a taste. Damn her for taking away this choice.

The hemline of her satin shorts was at his chin. Her inner thigh was leanly muscled, and an artery carried sweet living blood through its sleek length.

He leaned forward and bit deep.

Selah fell back against the pillows, stifling her blissful moan when Lucas slipped into her blood. He didn't have to make it good for her. He could have let it be a rip at her flesh and pain.

Considering that she'd forced him, it was what she'd expected. Probably what she'd deserved.

What was she becoming? A demon might do something like this.

But a demon could never feel this arousal. Her fingers clenched into fists, her back arched. She'd already acted against his will; she wouldn't add selfishness and take her pleasure through touch. But her knees rose of their own accord, sliding up Lucas's arms, hooking over his broad shoulders.

He lifted his head, and the stream of exquisite sensation through her blood halted, but not the need. Her nipples puckered with it, and she wanted his lips on them, or anywhere…

His powerful hands circled her thigh, gripped her opposite hip, as if he could hold her in place. His mouth dipped low, and he reopened the punctures with his fangs and continued drinking.

His lips were cool, his tongue a shivery press against her skin. His fingers, curling beneath her waistband, a perfect contrast to her heat.

Denial shrieked from his psyche. Her eyes flew open; Lucas ripped the seam at the inside of her thigh.

She vanished the shorts, instantly replaced them. "Lucas!"

But he was lost to the bloodlust. The suction against her thigh increased; erotic pleasure speared through her. The predator was lulling the prey into complacency.

His palm cupped her sex, began a slow rhythmic caress through satin.

She lifted her hips to meet his touch. Gentle, gentle. Don't move too quickly. Let him think she wouldn't resist. Use her psychic blocks to conceal her intention. Don't hurt him—don't let him hurt himself.

The punctures on her thigh healed shut.

She teleported. Straddled his back an instant later. Her dagger flashed; the blade opened the inside of her wrist, and she pressed it to his lips.

"Just drink," she said quietly into his ear.

His mouth fastened on the wound, and he sent the pleasure rushing through her again. His helplessness and horror crawled into her veins. He pivoted, rolled. Her arm twisted in front of her; his hips shoved between her thighs.

She cupped the back of his head with her free hand. "You aren't hard," she said breathlessly against his temple. "Your thirst is so overwhelming because you were taking the animal blood for too long, but it has also suppressed your libido. Even if you wanted to, you couldn't have sex with me. And you can't hurt me."

He yanked her arm over her head, sank his fangs into her throat. Her legs wrapped around his waist. Tight. He couldn't reach between them, couldn't remove his pants.

He tried. His hungry growls filled the room. Her necklace snapped. Beads rattled across the floor. His shirt ripped, then hers. Cold bare skin. Her nipples tightened. His desperation spiked.

"Lucas. Just drink." The bloodlust wouldn't respond to his will; it only responded to her desire. And she couldn't will that away, but she could ease his fear. "I'll stop the rest."

He shuddered against her. The bloodlust didn't allow him to halt his attempts to get inside her, but relief replaced his despair when she parried every thrust of his hands and body, resisted every psychic barrage through her veins.

Lucas drank. And drank. He took far more blood than a human could have survived. Perhaps more than a normal vampire could have.

Though almost lost in her own need and arousal, Selah felt the moment the bloodlust broke.

He stiffened. Pulled back, his face a mask of fury. He took a deep breath and said simply, harshly, "Go."

Easy enough to do.

She teleported out from under him.

Selah didn't go far.

Though he couldn't hear her, Lucas felt her psychic presence as he showered, soaping death and dirt from his skin. As he stripped the bloodstained pillowslip and blankets from the bed. As he climbed the stairs from his room in the basement, his muscles still tight with anger.

Tight, but no longer shaking.

He found her in front of the large picture window in the living room, looking out over the porch. The house was old, built on the outskirts of the city when Ashland had been little more than a logging town. Giant firs edged the property and, in the darkness, rose like shadowed sentinels around the yard.

Selah, in her wings and white column of a dress, stood almost as broad and unyielding.

Her face was smooth when she turned, without expression. Her arms were folded defensively below her breasts, her shoulders and back rigid. "I forced the feeding on you," she said quietly. "And I apologize. That was not who I am."

It apparently was. Had it surprised her? After three hundred years, she should have known what lurked inside her.

"If it comforts you to believe that, go ahead. Tell yourself that it was for my good, and that I was too stupid to make the decision for myself. I don't care."

Frustration and shame deepened her voice. "That was not what a Guardian is."

His gaze held hers. "I don't care. Let's go find your demon so that you can fulfill your duty, kill it, and get the hell out of my town."

Selah stared at him for a long moment before nodding. Her blue eyes were carefully blank. Rather than offer protection, the shields she formed over her face and around her mind exposed a deep vulnerability, provided evidence that something inside her needed to be guarded.

He turned away from her, his jaw clenching. Goddammit, he shouldn't care. He shouldn't be wondering why she was smiling and soft one moment, then a woman of marble and ice the next. Why she looked at her colleagues with a combination of affection and the expectation that they'd rip her guts open if she showed the slightest emotion.

His weapons were in the coat closet by the entryway. He retrieved the wooden stakes and the hand ax and tossed them in a canvas pack.

She didn't move from her post by the window, but she must have been watching him. "You use stakes?"

"Of course. What do you use?"

"My sword, usually. It doesn't have to be wood. All that matters is that you bisect the heart, cut off the head, or completely drain them of blood. Demons, too."

A wry smile crossed his lips. That knowledge could have saved him a lot of trouble; even with his strength, it was difficult to kill a vampire with a piece of sharpened oak.

Of course, his power was nothing compared to hers. Remembering the ease with which she'd held him on the bed, he glanced over his shoulder. "And Guardians?"

"The same. But you won't need to kill any."

"We'll be seeing more of you when you begin using the Gate. If they threaten my community—"

"You won't see more of us, nor are we likely to threaten you if your community lives as quietly as it does now. Most vampires won't be able to sense the difference between a Guardian and human." She sighed. "Unfortunately, the same is true of demons."

"Most vampires? But not me." Even on the animal blood, he'd been able to tell she wasn't human. He simply hadn't trusted his instincts.

"You're nosferatu-born. You have greater psychic strength than normal vampires, and I can teach you to differentiate between us."

"And to use a sword?"

He thought he felt approval from her, but it was impossible to determine from that blank expression. Did she think he'd completely shunned his responsibilities because he'd refused her blood?

He'd simply drawn a line between desire and duty; she'd pushed him over it. It didn't matter if she hadn't been herself when she'd done it. The desperate creature in that bed hadn't been him, either.

Would she be prepared if he pushed back?

"Yes. Though Hugh is more qualified to teach you. And it's best learned for defense; demons are as fast and as strong as I am. It's better to call for help from the Guardians than try to fight one."

Lucas nodded and glanced down at the pack in his hands. Stakes and an ax required that he get close before he could strike effectively. Useless against a demon, then. The weapons clattered together when he threw the pack into the closet.

"What's the plan for this evening?" He turned as he asked and had to suppress his astonished curse. Selah's skin had lost its golden glow; she was as pale as he was. Her incisors lengthened into fangs.

"A sweep of the city." She frowned slightly, swiped her tongue over her bottom lip. Scarlet dotted the soft pink flesh. Humor brightened her gaze. "Hugh would have my ass for not practicing with these more often."

Lucas would, too. He inhaled, felt the rising ache as her blood scented the air. Not bloodlust—that had been sated.

He approached her slowly. This close, he could detect his masculine odor lingering on her skin. The fragrance of arousal was hers.

There was no doubt she'd wanted him; she hadn't simply thought him attractive. It had been accompanied by willingness to follow it through to consummation. His need to have her wouldn't have been so overwhelming if she hadn't been willing, but the bloodlust wasn't responsible for the craving he felt now.

Yes, if she tried to feed him again without his consent he had every intention of pushing back—hard.

Selah didn't move as he lifted his hand to her cheek. Warm. The appearance of vampirism, but only a thin mask.

"Why the disguise?" He kept his voice as light as his touch. Her skin was heated silk beneath his fingertips. He let them remain a moment longer than necessary, skimmed them over her pulse when he dropped his hand away.

Her breath shuddered past her lips before she swallowed and said evenly, "If we're seen by a vampire—which is probable, given that it's three o'clock in the morning—you won't have the community wondering if you've slipped and hunted a human."

Or give them knowledge the Guardians existed. They wouldn't think she was anything but a vampire with extraordinary psychic shields, as long as they didn't touch her skin—or smell her.

"You don't have a vampire's scent," he said.

"Unfortunately, I can't fake one. Perfume might cover it, but I don't have any in my cache." Her gaze swept the room, narrowed on something behind him. "That will work, though."

She vanished. Lucas spun around; Selah stood next to the sofa table, a women's magazine in her hands. Glossy paper caught the light as she flipped through the pages.

She paused at an advertisement. Her lips parted; her eyes widened in feminine delight. "Oh. That's gorgeous." Her wings disappeared; a slim indigo top and flouncy knee-length skirt replaced the gown.

His mouth dried. The shirt hugged the ripe curve of her breasts. Her stomach was flat, taut beneath the clinging material. Beyond gorgeous. Beyond alluring.

And impossible. "You made that—looking at a picture?"

"Yes. I just imagine it, and wear it." Paper ripped; she rubbed the magazine down her front, up the length of her neck. A perfume sample. Light and breezy, as if the ocean had been captured in the scent. "I spent half my human life sewing. I consider the ability my eternal reward."

Amusement and arousal hit him with equal force. Best to go with one rather than suppress both. Lucas pinched the bridge of his nose, a deep laugh breaking from his chest.

Her teeth flashed when she grinned. She slapped the magazine closed, took a second to look at the cover. "I like this one, too. I'll have to remember it." Her smile faded, and her thumb smoothed over the mailing label glued to the bottom corner. "Olivia Jordan? She was your partner?"

"Yes. My consort." A partnership suggested equality; there'd been little between them. Friendship, yes. But he'd never been equal to her memories of something more.

Selah glanced around the living room. He knew what she'd seethe dark colors, the heavy rustic furniture. It had been the same in his bedroom. There were no feminine touches; that magazine was the only indication a woman had lived with him for twenty years. There'd never been any evidence of her in this house, except in her room.

A room that Lucas had never visited. It and the theater had served as her sanctuaries when friendship hadn't been enough—when the bloodlust had been too much. He hadn't intruded on them.

She carefully tucked the opened perfume strip back between the pages. "I think I'll enjoy giving the demon his eternal reward."

So would Lucas.

Chapter Five

Once again, they went on foot. Walking.

Or maybe it was a stroll. A slow amble. Whatever it was, after an hour of it in Lucas's company, Selah knew it was far more pleasurable than walking could possibly be.

He'd been relentless in his interrogation about demonsparticularly their weaknesses. To her surprise, he hadn't fixated on their physical vulnerabilities, but on their mental ones. And as she'd never met a demon she hadn't wanted to kill, Selah had no compunction against describing the personality flaws and the demise of those she'd slain.

In explicit detail.

But she shouldn't have been surprised, she mused when a brief silence fell between them. Once he'd realized his weapons would be useless against a demon, he'd left them behind. Though accustomed to being the most powerful of his kind, he wasn't completely dependent on his strength to protect them. Now he looked for other means of defeating the demon and anything else that threatened his community—including Guardians.

It was ridiculously appealing.

He drew to a halt at an intersection. "Cross?"

"No." The street was a clear demarcation between the theater district and a modest residential neighborhood. "It would be a slam to his ego to operate from there. Not rich enough."

They'd concentrated their search downtown, focusing on the more expensive hotels. A demon probably wouldn't have bothered with permanent accommodations, and most preferred luxurious and moneyed surroundings.

She'd sensed several vampires, but the demon's psychic presence eluded her. Either he was shielding, or he wasn't within her search radius.

Lucas's sigh of frustration echoed hers. "Do we know that he'll be in Ashland?"

"No." A single streetlight illuminated the corner, tingeing his pale skin with yellow. He should have looked sallow in such a light, but his features were too strong, his gaze too sharp for the light to weaken his appearance. "He could have picked that girl up in San Francisco. Or anywhere in between, if she'd fled San Francisco in May and hadn't yet returned."

"Four others, but only one—Olivia—from this community. I'd have known if any others had gone missing." His jaw tightened, and he passed his hand through his hair. "I returned to the site several times in the two weeks after she was killed, but I couldn't find any evidence, and no odor but hers."

"You tracked her by scent?" Impressive.

"Yes. The next evening, when I realized she wasn't home. Her scent went directly from the theater to the forest. She walked. There were prints from her shoes, and from a male's." He tucked his hands into his pockets, and they began retracing their path back to the heart of the city. Maintaining the illusion of a couple out for an early morning stroll. "She wasn't careless. And I'd warned her to be careful—we'd had too many unfamiliar vampires in town."

Some of them looking to challenge him, Selah guessed. His consort would've been a target if any other vampire sought his position. "He could've resembled someone she knew. Or imitated you."

He stilled. "How well?"

It was easier to demonstrate, and no one was on the street to see it. Selah shifted her form, created a mirror image of Lucas. His black hair, the green eyes. Copied his dark cotton shirt, the flat-front trousers, and his shoes.

"Jesus Christ." He circled her, taking in her appearance from each angle. He faced her as she regained her shape, and drew in a long breath between his teeth. "I don't think he impersonated me. The day before, she said she thought she'd seen David." He exhaled, shook his head. "Do you have to see the person to duplicate them?"

"It helps, but I can also use a picture. It's not as good that way, though, because I have to fill in a lot of the details. What the back of the person's head looks like, for example."

He stopped in front of a cafe, staring at his reflection in the darkened window. His eyes closed; his chin dropped. "Goddammit. Poor Olivia. She never had a chance."

Grief again, but this was older. And though it was less painful, it was also more deeply entrenched.

And beneath it, a sense of failure. Of betrayal.

He might not want comfort from her, or her touch, but she offered it. Her hand slid over his shoulder, and she stared at his set profile. "David. He was someone she'd known?" Someone dead. A brother, perhaps. Or a lover. A demon's deception was more effective—and more painful for the victim—when he took the form of a loved one.

"Olivia's husband."

That wasn't reason enough for the emotions she felt pouring from him. "Your friend."

He lifted his head. His voice was like stone. "Yes."

"I will kill him, Lucas." It seemed a poor reassurance.

"No." He backed up a step, and her hand dropped to her side. "You'll help me find him, and I'll do it."

She knew it wouldn't be that simple, but she nodded.

Lucas studied her for a long moment. "Dawn isn't far off. An hour. Do you need a place to stay? I have an extra room."

He only suggested it out of politeness; she could feel the reluctance that accompanied the offer.

But she had only herself to blame for it, and for the tightness in her throat. "I don't sleep." She forced a smile. "Do you want me to port you home?"

"No. I have a set to tear down." His hands flexed at his sides. Strong, powerful. And though he kept his emotions well contained, she hadn't any doubt he would forego the use of his tools this time. "Will you remain in the city during the day?"

Where else would she go? She had to meet with Hugh, but other than that… what was there to do but this?

And why did telling herself there was nothing, which had always pleased her before, seem so inadequate now? It was a Guardian's role to protect, to slay, to watch. It had always been enough. It had always been everything.

Many things had changed of late, but that shouldn't have.

"Yes." She pointed to the sky. "I'll make another sweep before the sun comes up. If I'm called away and won't be back before sunset, I'll try to leave a message for you."

"Can you find me if I'm not home?"

"Yes."

"But you can't find the demon?"

"No. I don't have an anchor to him. I can teleport anywhere, but to go directly to a person I need a physical link to them and their psychic shields must be down—or at least lowered slightly." She sighed when his hard stare asked the question he didn't voice. "I took your blood off the nail. It's in my cache. But I won't intrude on your privacy. I won't pop in unannounced."

Most vampires woke at sundown, but there were rituals to follow: showering, dressing. And though she'd have enjoyed teleporting into a hot, steaming room with a naked Lucas, she doubted he'd have appreciated the surprise.

Apparently, a similar scenario occurred to him. His eyes glittered with sudden heat, and his gaze swept her length. "At least you'd be certain that you got everything right."

Her mouth dropped open, and she laughed. "I would show you what I imagined, but I'd risk crushing your ego."

His lips firmed, and he cast an accusing glance at her pelvis.

Grinning, she added, "Not because it was small. It's because reality might not live up to it."

She teleported before he could respond. Hovering a hundred feet in the air, she heard his startled, reluctant laughter. She watched silently over him as he returned to his theater, then an hour later, as he emerged covered in sweat and sawdust, and drove home beneath a lightening sky.

Home. The breeze slid through her wings, a cold and welcome caress. How strange, though she could go anywhere in the world, that in two hundred and fifty years it was the first time she wished she had a place to go to.

At noon, Selah teleported into a park. It had sun-warmed green grass, a lake, dogs fighting against their leashes—and humans who exercised. Hugh ran past her, then jogged in place, waiting.

"You knew I was coming." She instantly changed from the white gown into a pair of sweats that were as ragged as his. Then made them fluorescent pink, hoping the color would blind him.

A smile tugged at his mouth, but his blue eyes were hard and flat.

"Yes," he said before he continued down the trail. With a sigh, she fell into step beside him. It was several miles before he spoke again. "Did he take the blood?"

"Yes."

He slanted a glance over his shoulder, read her in an instant. "But not willingly."

"No." Her chest ached. Not from running; she didn't need to breathe and didn't physically tire.

Silence fell between them again, only broken by the quick rhythm of their feet. They were running much faster than humans could have, but though several watched them pass, none remarked on it.

She hated this. Hated it, and he knew it.

"Why did you?"

Her teeth ground together. He'd had to Fall after denying a human's free will—to save a little girl—and he wondered why she would deny a vampire's will? "Because he can't protect his community if he's not strong."

She felt his cold disappointment before he said, "That's a lie, Selah."

Blades of grass smashed beneath her skidding shoes, releasing their verdant odor. He stopped as suddenly, though without the same awkwardness.

Or the shock. Hugh could determine the truth of any statement; it had been his Gift as a Guardian, and he'd retained the ability after his Fall. She couldn't doubt his assessment—but neither could she understand it. "How is it a lie? He can't protect them if he's on animal blood."

"That's truth." His breathing was ragged; sweat dampened his T-shirt. "But it wasn't your reason."

"Then what was?"

Grooves formed beside his mouth as if he was suppressing laughter. "I don't read minds."

"But you read people. You see." Better than anyone Selah had known. And he was more honest in his evaluation than anyone; he didn't mince words. There was never any fudging of truth to save hurt feelings.

"You want to know? Truly?"

It could be brutal, but she wanted—needed—to know. "Yes."

His face hardened. "I saw that you came here wearing angelic clothes that you've set up as armor. I'll admit I was angry. And—"

He broke off, but he didn't need to tell her. He opened his shields, let her sense it.

Hurt. Frustration. She'd created that in him? Her hands clenched at her sides. "Why?"

"You always embraced being a Guardian. Left everything you'd been as a human behind. And you took to it better than anyone else, internalized everything it stood for."

"And you rejected it," she said flatly.

He stilled for a long second, his jaw tight. Then he gripped the hem of his shirt in his fist and dragged it up to his collarbone. His voice was hoarse. "You can say that to me?"

She made herself look at the scars on his chest, the symbols written there. Three months before, she'd watched him stand and willingly accept the pain as they were carved into his flesh, to save a human's soul, to save Caelum.

"No," she whispered. "I'm sorry." Twice, in less than a day's time, she was apologizing with shame thick in her throat.

Hugh deserved better. Lucas had deserved better.

He sighed and let go of the shirt. "Yet you obviously feel the need to have that armor between us. Not just us—you've put it between yourself and every other Guardian."

"So you forced me out of it?" So that she'd be vulnerable?

His dark brows drew together. "How can I force you to do anything?"

She waved her arm in a wide arc, indicating the park, the humans.

"Circumstances forced it—circumstances that you chose. And because I can't run around with wings and a gown without risking someone seeing me."

"That reason is truth. Though they'd never assume it was anything but a costume, unless you flew."

"Better than running. You could have made me change clothes by meeting me in a restaurant. Why would you do it this way if you know I hate it?" Someone like Lilith might do it for that reason, but Hugh wasn't vicious or petty. Or he hadn't been.

His blue eyes warmed. "Why didn't you ask me to stop?"

She stared at him, her lips parting in surprise. Why hadn't she? If she'd requested they quit, he would've immediately assented.

A short laugh escaped her, and she tilted her head back. The sky was pale, the sun high. Summer in western San Francisco—it would probably be obscured by afternoon fog before much longer.

She glanced at Hugh, noted that his strong, quiet stance was exactly the same as it had been when he'd covered his body with a staid brown robe. It was the same as every time he'd forced her to discover a truth by working through it.

He'd give her tools, but he wouldn't dig her out. That she had to do on her own.

"Do you ever stop mentoring?"

"No." His mouth quirked into a brief smile. "Though there are many I don't have an opportunity to teach."

She blinked as she caught his meaning, but she wasn't truly surprised. "Lucas?"

Hugh might not have remembered the name, but he likely wouldn't have forgotten the face—especially once he realized Lucas was nosferatu-born. There weren't many.

The vampire hadn't recognized Hugh, but the former Guardian had aged since he'd Fallen. In human years, she guessed he was thirty-two or -three. No longer the teenaged boy.

Hugh nodded. "I made him, and helped him transform a woman. One—a male—I couldn't save. I'll tell you at the house."

"I'm not walking back."

His deep laughter echoed across the grounds. "Good," he said as he held out his hand. "Because you wore me out."

"You're just old." She slid her palm against his; she didn't need to prepare him. They'd done this hundreds of times.

"That's true, too."

Chapter Six

Selah waited until twilight stained the sky violet before knocking at Lucas's front door. His absent reply came from deep within the house.

Mentally anchoring to his blood gave her a better sense of his location than his voice did. He didn't startle when she teleported in. His black hair was damp, curling slightly. The scent of disuse hung stale in the air, enlivened only by the smell of his soap.

She leaned closer to him and inhaled the woodsy fragrance, then masked her appreciation with a melodramatic sigh. "I missed the shower."

He glanced up from the framed photo in his hands. A wedding picture; the cut of the groom's tuxedo and the bride's stiffly sprayed bangs and makeup suggested it was at least twenty years old. "I would've lingered for another hour, waiting, but if you'd mimicked me in cold water it would've done very little for my ego."

She smiled, but her amusement faded as she looked about the room. Theater posters and memorabilia patterned the walls. The furniture was upholstered in soft cream and blue; the coverlet on the bed was delicate lace. A woman's bedroom. Heavy drapes covered the windows. A vampire's bedroom.

They were upstairs; the ceiling peaked in the center. For someone with a vampire's speed, it wasn't an inconvenient distance from the basement—but its existence implied a separation much wider than the physical.

Perhaps it was disrespectful to think ill of the dead, but Selah had never witnessed anyone struck down by the heavens for doing so.

Olivia Jordan had been an idiot.

A beautiful idiot. The bride was the same woman fronting many of the cast photos sitting atop the dresser. A haunted, ethereal melancholy had replaced the exuberant joy in the wedding picture.

Lucas wasn't in any of them.

"How is it that you went from police officer, to lawyer, to theater owner?" Two of the occupations required an assertive personality, yet as a vampire he'd remained in the background.

He replaced the frame on the nightstand. "How is it that you have knowledge of what I was then, but not what happened to Olivia a month ago? Or even that she was my consort?"

"You didn't file a joint return with the IRS. I'm serious," she protested when his lips tightened. "Guardians don't keep tabs on the vampire communities." Not any longer. After the Ascension, Michael hadn't assigned any of the remaining Guardians to observe the vampires. When thousands populated Caelum, Guardians had monitored the vampires' internal power struggles and provided the communities silent protection from demons and nosferatu. Now, with less than fifty in the Guardian corps, they simply didn't have the ability.

"But you did know how to find me."

"It wasn't difficult. Once we discovered the problem with the Gate, I came to Ashland, shifted into a vampire form, and asked the first vampire I saw who the community's head was. Once I had your name, I took it to Hugh. He got the background info."

"How?"

Selah smiled slightly. "A computer, I imagine."

Lucas nodded, seeming to accept that explanation. He hadn't asked these particulars the previous evening, but perhaps the animal blood—or the surprise of discovering that Guardians existed—had overcome his caution.

His attention shifted. Stepping away from the bed, he tapped a poster on the wall. "Tartu f fe. It was our first."

In the summer of 1987, the same year Hugh had transformed him. "But you don't perform."

"Not if I can help it." As if he was amused by the notion, a soft chuckle escaped him. "The few appearances I made in the courtroom made it very clear that I'd never be a good actor."

"You didn't win?"

"Win, yes, but only because my arguments and cases were solid. If a guilty verdict had depended upon my skill as an orator and playing my audience, I wouldn't have earned a single conviction."

"You' bored the jury?" Selah had a difficult time believing that. Just watching him pace a path from the wall to her side was mesmerizing. All fluid muscle and silent pursuit.

"No. I was too single-minded." His gaze met hers, and wariness had her flexing her hands, as if in preparation to call in her sword. She saw what he didn't add: Relentless. Merciless. "If a jury had been any less certain of a defendant's guilt, they'd have set him free."

As compassionate humans would any helpless, trapped animal. Selah swallowed, forced moisture onto her tongue. "Obviously you couldn't have remained an attorney." Courts didn't operate on a vampire's schedule.

"No. When I came to Ashland—"

"When you were brought here."

He paused. "You know that as well?"

"Hugh was the one who transformed you—and Olivia. He told me about the cave and about bringing you to the elders here."

Whose position Lucas had quickly taken. Had he been forced to kill them in self-defense after they recognized his strength? Most vampires wouldn't appreciate knowing they'd invited their successor in through the front door.

"Then he has a better memory of it than I do."

"It must have been terrifying," she said softly.

His firm lips tilted in a smile. "Yes. I haven't spelunked many caves in the past twenty years."

Three months ago, she had. Run through them, scrambling and scratching through caves so deep that the screams of the damned hadn't penetrated the stone walls. Through corridors so small she'd had to vanish her wings and crawl. Through caverns so black, even with her angelic sight, the darkness had been as unyielding as death.

But in Chaos, the dark was less frightening than what had been living.

"Selah?" It was only her name, and spoken quietly, but it pulled her back. His gaze was intent on her face.

She glanced away, tracing her fingers over the bedpost's scrolled woodwork. Cool and smooth. She'd have preferred to sit on the mattress rather than stand, but Lucas's focus on her hadn't shifted away, and he had enough advantage with his size. He did not touch the bed, but he stared down at her from less than an arm's length away. His shoulders seemed very broad, and her height and heels and Guardian strength did not negate the overpowering presence of him.

She swallowed. "Did the theater pass to you when you defeated the elders?"

It wasn't unusual for a community's economy to center around a theater or a nightclub. It provided employment and a place to congregate. Typically, those venues were in the elders' possession, and younger vampires were discouraged from buying their own—with the explanation that it might splinter the community. But Selah knew no one truly believed that. It simply kept the power in the elders' hands.

His brow furrowed, and for a moment she thought he might pursue her reaction instead of her response. But he only said, "I bought the theater from one of the elders. Pierre—the former community head. And once he realized my physical capabilities, he relinquished his position and I acceded to it."

Selah shook her head in disbelief. "You didn't have to kill him?"

"No. Ashland isn't your typical vampire community. There are no squabbles .for power. Most concentrate on the theater. Some produce art and sell it in the tourist shops. Pierre wants only to direct; he was content to pass the business side of the theater to me—along with the duties required of the head."

Such as protection and punishment for those who disregarded community rules. Given his background, Lucas would have been well suited for both. "But even the most easygoing vampires won't allow you to continue like this indefinitely—without a consort."

"No."

She smoothed her expression. "I could inquire within the San Francisco community. After the nosferatu slaughtered the elders, many vampires were left unattached."

Lucas gripped the carved bedpost, his hand six inches above hers; his thumb rubbed firmly over the surface, as if to polish away a spot. His mouth tightened with a combination of humor and frustration. "No. Thank you."

Selah halted her fingers' restless movements and dropped her fist to her side. He looked down at her hand, and his body stilled. Selah's breath drew in raggedly between her teeth.

She'd retreated. Not in fear, or from discomfort caused by his proximity, but because her fidgeting betrayed her uncertainty of how to handle him—and of her response.

But stopping had called attention to it just as well.

"And who would you have asked to procure a consort for me? Your vampire?"

His voice had deepened, a silken prowl the length of her spine. She suppressed the shiver that ran through her. "Colin?" At his nod, she shook her head, her laugh sticking in her throat. "He has no connections. The vampires in San Francisco like his feeding from humans no better than you did."

"Why do you allow him?"

"We don't allow him anything. He does what he needs to survive, and we don't stop him." She tilted her head; his gaze fell to her neck before meeting her eyes again. His bloodlust hadn't yet risen, but she couldn't mistake the hunger in his psychic scent. "And he's a friend," she added.

It was best Lucas didn't misinterpret her relationship with Colin. He was charming, entertaining, and she'd welcome him at her side in a battle—but with a selfish streak that reminded her, at times, of a spoiled child.

She preferred men.

Judging by the narrowing of his eyes, the satisfaction in that steady gaze, he didn't misunderstand. "As the others are friends?"

"I'm undecided about Lilith." Her lips quirked. "But, yes, Hugh is."

"It was difficult to tell."

She lifted her brows, glanced pointedly at Olivia's bed. "Friendships can be complicated."

A wry smile touched his mouth. "Yes. Why is yours?"

He added the question smoothly, familiarly, as if it would be the most natural thing in the world for her to bare herself to him. And perhaps it was. By forcing him to feed, she'd already exposed something she'd never shown anyone else… hadn't been aware it was in her.

Was it new, or had the recent upheavals in the Guardian corps brought it to the surface? Had Lucas?

She stared up at him. His features were strong, handsome—but as seconds passed and she didn't answer, it was the slight wrinkling at the corners of his eyes that appealed most. Humor, when he realized she hadn't fallen for his slippery tactic.

His fangs glistened as his smile widened, and he leaned his shoulder against the bedpost, crossing his arms. It was a relaxed, masculine pose—and with it, he invaded oh-so-casually into the cushion of space she'd maintained between them.

Yes, he could easily be a life-changing force. An upheaval.

And maybe she needed one. A good one. "I mentioned last night that Hugh gave up his immortality and Fell."

If Lucas was surprised she'd answered him after all, he didn't show it. He simply nodded.

"Hugh was the best of us. No question of it; if Michael assigned us rank, Hugh would have been his lieutenant general. And he was a mentor to many of us. So when he lost faith in his role as a Guardian and transformed back into human… it was devastating."

"But he's working with you again."

"Yes. And living with a demon."

"You consider it a betrayal? Lucifer's daughter—and his Fall?"

She glanced down at the lace coverlet, straightened a fold at the corner. "No," she said truthfully. "He did what he had to do. There are others whose actions I'd consider—"

"`He did what he had to do'?" The cool press of his fingertips beneath her chin startled her. More in surprise than at his insistence, she looked up. His fangs gleamed in a hard smile. "You said almost the same of the vampire, and his feeding from humans. If doing what one `has to do' is your criterion for excusing behavior you don't sanction, little wonder you forced me last evening. Whose reluctance infuriated you more—mine or yours?"

"That question assumes I did it because I was angry." Had she been?

"And now evasion."

"Uncertainty."

"And this?" He tugged the pendant dangling from her wide velvet choker. "I am uncertain if this is supposed to act as enticement for me or protection for you."

"It is neither. It's just a pretty piece of jewelry I saw in Vogue." She caught his wrist. "You want to know if I'll force you again."

"Yes." He didn't try to escape her grasp.

"I prefer not to."

"But you would."

Yes, but this time for the right reason. "Why do I need to?" But she knew the answer to that. This bedroom screamed it. "A demon is sacrificing vampires in your city. Will I need to?"

His jaw clenched. "No."

"Good." She didn't realize how tension had knotted inside her until his answer eased it, and she released it in a short laugh. "I haven't provided supper according to a schedule since I died, but I'll make an exception for you. And the best part is that I won't be on my feet for hours preparing it."

Brief amusement sweetened his psychic scent, but his voice was flat. "Because you have to."

"Yes, though it would be just as easy for me to find a vampire to do it." Her grip tightened. "It's also because I want to. Why does it have to be one or the other?"

Lucas didn't have the strength to break her hold, but even without hundreds of years of training, he knew how to turn it to his advantage. He pulled her toward him.

And she knew a dozen ways to reclaim it, but she let herself fall against him. Her silk top was thin; her nipples drew taut against the chilled cotton of his shirt, the hardness of his chest.

His hand cupped her jaw, the splay of his fingers a delicious pressure on the skin of her cheek, below her ear. "I've been twisted up for twenty years. I want something uncomplicated."

His touch was cold, but heat built in his psychic scent and curled like a slow smoking flame deep within her. Hot and moist.

"So do I." She lowered her shields slightly, let him feel her response. "And this is."

This was enticement. Not a necklace or even blood, but the warm press of her body. Her smile, a cupid's bow fully drawn. Lucas had always thought his fangs lethal, but her mouth was far more dangerous.

. And it was best to approach it with caution. Her bottom lip softened beneath his. Willingly. Without a recoil of guilt and shame, without a reminder that a kiss wasn't necessary—or wanted.

Selah had been correct: This was simple. Necessity and want. Not one or the other, but both.

Her long exhalation spoke of her pleasure. Of her desire for more. It had been twenty years, but he recognized that silent confession. The plea.

Her lips closed over his tongue, and need arrowed sharply through him. He took her mouth with deep strokes. His fangs scraped wet silken skin. Blood, just a taste, but he wielded the bolt of electric flavor like an erotic sword, struck her with it.

She moaned low in her throat; her fingers tightened painfully on his shoulders. She'd already healed, but the effect lingered. Her back arched. Her knee rose alongside his thigh, a warm smooth glide over rough denim, and hooked over his hip. He rocked back slightly when she rose onto her toes, as if she were trying to get closertrying to crawl onto him.

And the best part is that I won't be on my feet…

He slid his hands to the firm swell of her ass, lifted her. Selah apparently liked that—better than she had the bliss he'd sent singing through her veins. Fierce arousal darkened her psychic scent. Her fingers buried in his hair. Her wrists were a heated brand against his neck.

He tumbled her onto the bed. Her legs encircled him, drew him down with her. Fragile lace crumpled beneath his fisting hands, and he set up an easy rhythm of his body over hers.

He froze above her. Clenched his teeth.

His unresponsive body.

Goddammit.

Selah moved; the next instant, he was on his back. She straddled his hips, braced her hands on his shoulders. The tips of her hair brushed his chin. Her face was devoid of expression, but he could smell—feel—the heat and wet of her, see the flush on her skin. "We might have to slay this particular demon another time."

He blinked; had she thought he'd stopped because this was Olivia's bed? But he had no time to ask.

The skirt of her white gown suddenly pooled around her knees, over his stomach and thighs. The mattress creaked as she formed her wings, doubling her weight.

"How many?" she said over her shoulder. Lucas tried to sit up; she held him fast.

"Seven." The deep masculine voice made a melody of two syllables. Lucas's psychic probe revealed nothing, and he couldn't see past the arch of thick white feathers.

The muscles in her thighs tensed beneath his hands. She met his eyes; fear flickered in their blue depths before she swept it away with the fall of her lashes. "Will you leave two for me?"

"If you hurry."

"I'll find you in twenty seconds."

Lucas knew the moment their visitor left by the shifting of her features, the reclamation of emotion.

"Michael. A rout of demons. I'll be back as soon as I can."

He nodded. There was nothing else to do; he'd been a cop. He knew that "if I can" was attached to that statement.

She sat up fully, releasing him. He rose onto his elbows. Two swords appeared in her hands. "And I'll tell him to knock next time." He grinned. And now his shaft responded with a subtle ache when anticipation flared through her psychic scent, when she vanished one of her swords to brush her thumb against his left fang and slide it into his mouth. A drop of blood fell on his tongue. He forced himself not to catch her wrist, to prevent her from withdrawing her hand.

He swallowed; his voice was thick. "Or to bring a dose of Viagra. I'm at that age, you realize—"

Her smiling mouth caught his in a kiss. And then she was gone.

Chapter Seven

Jesus Christ. A limp dick and a lame joke. As he parked the jeep near Pierre's apartment, Lucas tried to decide which had been worse. He wasn't even certain if he could blame it on the animal blood.

Erectile dysfunction, yes. But inanity?

It must have been her mouth. Or the brief vulnerability she'd shown him. Seven demons against two Guardians, but she'd gone because she'd had to. Because of duty.

And he'd found his attraction instantly deepening into something beyond physical, into admiration and an unexpected kinship. Selfdisgust followed it, that she'd had to force him into accepting the same. Concern, that whatever fear she'd had would be realized and she wouldn't return.

So he was twisted up, once again. But without shame, without guilt. He didn't think he wanted to be straightened out just yet. Marguerite waited for him on the sidewalk, her portfolio case in one hand, a mound of flowers tucked beneath her chin. Lucas automatically took both from her, though their weight was negligible to any vampire.

"Ah, chivalry isn't dead. Not five minutes ago, I despaired every man but Pierre had driven a stake through its gallant heart."

Roses. Not his favorite—too sweet and cloying. He drew in a breath through his mouth and followed her up the stairs. Pierre and Marguerite leased the second floor of the Parisian-inspired building. A wrought-iron balcony overlooked the street; a human couple window-shopped in front of the art gallery on the first level.

"What occurred five minutes ago?"

She paused in front of the door. A knot of gray hair pulled at the corners of her eyes; clothed in unrelenting black, she looked as severe and thin as a nightstick. "Victor closed the gallery, interrupting Julianne and me, just as she began relating the most fascinating bit of gossip I've heard in ages. I was distraught, until I looked out the window and saw the subject of our little tête-à-tête."

Lucas wasn't surprised. There were a lot of eyes in Ashland; many of them had excellent night vision. "The evening has cooled nicely, hasn't it? I saw that it was a record high today."

"Cheeky vampire. Don't smile like that. You'll frighten the children."

Once inside, frigid air surrounded him, the hum of air-conditioning units. Aside from that modern convenience, it was like stepping into a luxurious Old World salon. They'd spared no expense on their collection of furniture and art—and they'd had more than a century to collect them.

"Lucas. Pardon me, Scott." His dark hair shining beneath the lamp, Pierre rose from the ivory-inlaid game table in the corner of the room. The young male vampire nodded, his gaze fixing on Marguerite for a long moment before he returned his attention to the chess set in front of him.

Lucas suppressed his amusement. Scott was one of Marguerite's "children," but the latent sexual hunger coming from the vampire wasn't remotely familial. He'd buried it, hidden it well; Lucas doubted that either Marguerite or Pierre were aware of the kid's interest.

Or Scott's partner, Andrea. Though Lucas thought even if Andrea had known, she probably wouldn't have cared.

She sat at the window, her chin resting on her crossed arms as she stared through the pane, her hair a pale wispy crown, her eyes blank. Not much emanated from her psychic scent.

They were refugees from San Francisco, where both had lost their partners to the nosferatu. They'd arrived in Ashland a month after most of the other vampires had left and had been unwilling to return to California. Their bloodsharing arrangement had arisen from necessity, but it was easy to see that little affection had developed between them in spite of the forced intimacy. Even Andrea's clothing acted as a barrier; she'd covered every inch of her skin.

Marguerite had made it her mission to support them until they found suitable employment, and probably thought the mock turtleneck and slim pants were a flattering emulation of her style—but Lucas had experienced exactly the same from Olivia in their first years together.

"Since sundown, I have been bombarded with telephone calls from the elders," Pierre said as he took Lucas's hand in greeting. His unlined skin retained some of his natural olive color; his Gallic nose and eyes were sharp. "Cora is demanding to know whether you've taken Vampire Barbie as your consort."

Despite the humor in Pierre's tone, Lucas didn't mistake the gravity behind it. The community's anxiety over the situation was increasing. Unfortunately, he couldn't yet reassure them. "No."

Marguerite made a sound of dismay, but she directed it at Pierre. "You'd heard this on dit and didn't journey downstairs to share it with me?" She pursed her thin lips, shaking her head. "Chivalry is dead, and the elders can rest easy for at least another day. Lucas has obviously fed."

Pierre nodded, studying him. "Who is she?"

Conscious of the children, Lucas said cryptically, "A friend of the man who left me on your doorstep twenty years ago."

Pierre and Marguerite exchanged swift, startled glances.

"You knew what he was," Lucas realized.

"We suspected, but didn't truly imagine—" Marguerite's mouth softened; disbelief filled her scent.

"We'd only heard rumors of their existence," Pierre said. "We knew of the nosferatu, but the others? No one was certain."

Lucas looked behind him. Though Scott stared at the board, his attention was clearly not on calculating his next move. Andrea's apathy was palpable. He'd have preferred privacy for this discussion, but there was nowhere within the apartment the two vampires couldn't overhear them.

"Apparently, the `others' include those not as willing to save us. I found another in the woods last evening," he said quietly. "A female from San Francisco."

"Who?"

Lucas turned. Andrea's eyes were wide with alarm. "She didn't have any identification. Long brown hair, freckles. Her partner was a male. Redhead, wore a ratty denim jacket."

"You found him?" Her voice was low, a soft fearful whisper. She darted an uneasy glance at her partner.

"No. But there were the remains of several others. A total of five," Lucas said and frowned at Scott. The vampire had begun to actively shield his thoughts. He wouldn't meet Lucas's gaze; his fingers clenched tightly around a pawn.

What was the kid hiding? Had Andrea sensed something odd while feeding from him, and only now pieced it together? If Lucas could only read Andrea better and determine the source of her anxiety—detecting Scott's unusual sexual proclivity had been easier than penetrating her blank psyche. But Scott's behavior created a reasonable suspicion, enough to…

Realization slammed into him, and Lucas snapped his psychic shields into place.

And lowered them… slightly.

Lucas immediately pushed thoughts of the demon to the back of his mind, but Marguerite and Pierre knew him too well. They formed their mental blocks in response to his—but Lucas couldn't answer the questions that lurked in their eyes.

What would a demon do if they showed alarm or fled? Perhaps its only enjoyment stemmed from their fear. And it wouldn't know that Selah was returning; it might decide to prolong their dread.

Marguerite touched his shoulder. Though her expression was neutral, the fine lines radiating around her eyes and mouth had deepened. "This is terrible, disturbing news," she said. "We should discuss this with the elders. Shall we walk to Victor's?"

Out of the apartment… where they wouldn't be overheard. Leaving Scott alone with Andrea. His gut tightened. Andrea turned to stare out the window again, her body trembling. 'Her hands disappeared into her sleeves as she hugged her arms to her chest.

"No," Lucas said. "We'll wait."

He hoped it wouldn't be long.

The rising sun was in her eyes, the traffic below her loud. Early morning Rome. Dangerous to fly so low and openly, but at this speed few humans would notice. The maze of buildings blurred around her. A few miles to the south, Michael probably still battled the three demons left in the church's catacombs. Selah had taken off in pursuit of the one who'd fled.

But she couldn't find the damned thing. Worse, she couldn't hide from him. Her mind was guarded, but the blood spilling from her side advertised her location better than Il Vittoriano passed below in a flash of boxy white marble. She blinked.

A new figure straddled one of the equestrian statues on the roof, his wings spread as wide as Victoria's. His crimson scales gleamed in the sunlight; his horns curled like polished jet. A demon, hoping she wouldn't look too closely. He'd have had better luck posing as a tourist in the crowded piazza.

She teleported behind him.

Stupid of her. Arrogant. She'd lost the advantage of surprise in the catacombs when she'd beheaded his demon brother. He'd seen her use her Gift; he was ready for it.

His ax cut through her bicep. She teleported before the blade could slide past her ribs into her heart.

She appeared on his left side. She couldn't use her strongest arm; it lay useless on the roof. He was still in motion, following through on the strike that should have killed her. He couldn't defend himself in time.

His horns struck sparks from the stone. His blood spurted across her face and feet, and the pain finally hit her, ripping up through her shoulder. She ground her teeth together to stop the scream, squeezed her eyes shut.

Push it away. Need to get back to—

No. No need. A familiar psychic presence filled her senses, but only because he allowed it. Letting her know he was there.

"It was well done," Michael said. She didn't look up. The clatter of her sword told her what he was doing: picking up her arm. A psychic touch eased over her stomach, strong enough that it actually felt like touch. The dull ache in her side disappeared.

She staggered as a burst of healing power slammed through her. Her fingers tingled and burned. All of them.

Selah sucked in a long, relieved breath and glanced up. Michael had already changed his clothes, trading his bloodstained toga and giant black wings for a white linen tunic and loose pants.

Italy. And she was still alive. It called for strappy heels and a sundress.

She looked down at her toes and vanished the demon's corpse, shuddering; nothing felt more disgusting than a body and blood in her cache. "I guess it's better than carrying my arm back to you to be Healed, though. Or waiting for it to regenerate."

His mouth pulled into a brief smile, but his humor quickly faded. His dark gaze swept over the city.

"Rome," she murmured, absently massaging her bicep to erase the bite of the ax. A phantom pain, probably more mental than physical. "I haven't had to come here before." She'd visited on her own, briefly.

"No. It's usually well protected."

"We've been stretched thin since the Ascension, and the nearest Gate is—" She had to think about it. She didn't use them. "—outside of Paris? It's hardly a surprise that demons would congregate here."

He shook his head; his closely cropped black hair seemed to absorb the sunlight. "No. Protected by one who calls it her own."

"A Guardian?" Selah hadn't known, but she wasn't surprised. There had been so many Guardians before the Ascension. Only Michael kept track of them all.

"Yes."

"Where is she?"

"I don't know." His back was rigid, his broad form motionless. Like Lucas, he didn't breathe unless he was speaking. "I have spoken with Lilith about the sacrifices in Oregon. Her interpretation of the symbols was correct."

"Will it work?"

His mouth firmed, and he gave a short nod. "Like every being who was once human, vampires have a natural connection to Hell. As they do Caelum. If enough are sacrificed, and it is not selfsacrifice… it will work."

"Would Lucifer have relinquished knowledge of the symbols so easily?"

"No. The Morningstar likely made a bargain to ensure secrecyand to ascertain the demon would complete his task." Michael's obsidian gaze met hers. "And he probably limited the time in which to complete it. Opening the Gate four centuries from now would not serve him."

Then she needed to get back. But she hesitated. Seven demons; two Guardians. She'd barely survived, and she was one of the strongest remaining.

"Are we going to make it through the next five hundred years?"

He tilted his face back, closed his eyes. The pale sun burnished his skin a deep bronze. "Yes. But we have to change."

Dammit. "I'm not very good at that."

His brows lifted, and he shot her an amused glance. "Neither am I."

Cool morning air in Rome, to cool evening air in Ashland. Nothing else was similar. Selah hovered above the small, quiet city, letting the breeze slip through her skirt, over her thighs and arms.

Lucas was directly below her. She'd anchored to him, and then teleported several hundred feet into the sky. And a good thing that she had: he wasn't home. Her dropping in to a stranger's apartment would have been difficult to explain away.

She frowned, listening. A male with a faint Parisian accent inquired about a doll's accessories; Lucas replied with light, offhand laughter.

To all appearances, a casual and friendly conversation, yet, except for Lucas's, each mind in the apartment was tightly shielded.

Her psychic focus narrowed, pierced through the first. A female vampire, who kept her fear well contained with her maturity. On to her consort. Selah sensed his concern for the first vampire and moved on. The young vampire, filled with dread. And the other—

Barely a touch to that mind, and it slithered over her skin.

Demon. Aware of her now.

It didn't speak, and she was too distant to hear its heartbeat. She couldn't determine its location. Dammit. Protection, then, at least in the first moment.

She teleported in front of Lucas, snapped her wings wide. There, by the window—

Lucas said with obvious relief, "And she comes with swords."

So did the demon. A tiny pale girl… no longer. She shifted as she leaped. Not toward Selah, but across a table. Her taloned hand closed around the young vampire's neck. The point of her blade drew blood from his pale skin.

"Guardian."

Only a demon could make a hiss of the word, sliding it from her forked tongue. Black membranous wings flared from her back. Her glowing scarlet gaze never wavered from Selah's face.

And why would it? The vampires weren't armed. But Selah could change that. "Lucas, hold out your hand."

Selah glanced swiftly at the others; the male's arms had wrapped around his consort, and he was pulling her toward the door.

"Gather up the others, Pierre. Get them to the Paradise and lock it down." Lucas stood next to her, the gun she'd given him aimed at the demon's face. His stance was relaxed and confident, his concentration cold.

Selah teleported.

Save the boy. She appeared to the right of the demon, provoking her instinctive defense and drawing the sword away from the vampire's throat. It was impossible for Selah to strike an effective blow without hurting the kid; his body shielded the demon's. Selah touched him and teleported again.

She dumped him by the others, just outside the apartment door.

The female gasped "Scott!" and gripped his arm as they began to run. Selah didn't wait to see where they ran to—a puff of air signaled Lucas's shot.

A silencer. Loud to Selah's ears. Back in, but not to block the sword she'd expected; the demon, reeling back from the impact of a bullet in her forehead, had replaced her weapon with a crossbow. She'd already fired it.

Protection first. Selah teleported in front of Lucas, and the bolt embedded in her throat, knocked her into his arms. The second bolt slammed into her chest, her blood filling her mouth and burning her lungs like Hell.

Weakening, dizzy—she couldn't fight like this. Couldn't protect him. They had to go.

Caelum.

Chapter Eight

Get it out get it out getitout

Selah fell to her knees, grabbed the feathered shaft.

Not enough Healers. She didn't dare teleport to Michael or one of the few others who had the Gift. She didn't know where they were; if they weren't in Caelum and didn't have privacy from humans, appearing before them risked exposure.

It hurt, but it wouldn't kill her.

"No! Selah… wait." The rigid cast of Lucas's face tightened as his hands covered hers. Blood dripped between his fingers, between hers, dotted the white marble floor with irregular circles. Ever-widening circles. "Let me break off the point first. Jesus fucking Christ. You're insane."

His arm circled her shoulders; he leaned forward and lifted the hair from the back of her neck. His grip was gentle, the snap decisive and quick. She yanked, and the pressure inside her throat eased, pouring out as easily as the blood.

She slapped her hand over the small hole, staunching the flow. Tried to smile. "Hungry?" It came out as a bubbling wheeze.

In the instant his incredulous gaze met hers, she tore the second shaft from her chest. She couldn't halt her scream or the tears that made his moss green eyes blur and soften in front of her.

"Jesus! Hold on." His fingers threaded into the hair by her temple; his palm cupped her cheek. "Goddammit, Selah. Let me help."

The scent of his blood hit her, darker and richer than her own; he'd opened his left wrist with his fangs, was pressing it between her breasts.

Her sigh of gratitude was lost in her ruptured throat. She already healed quickly, but a vampire's blood would speed the process.

She saw him bite his tongue before he dipped his head. He nudged her chin up with a push of his jaw, pulled her hand from her neck. His mouth covered the entrance wound; his tongue pressed wet against her skin.

It wasn't erotic. Selah tipped her face to the ceiling to allow him better access. There were no windows, but Caelum's never-setting sun warmed the white stone above her and beneath her, its heat soaking through the marble. She had always found it soothing, but now Lucas's cool lips, his strong embrace comforted her more.

She could stay here forever.

She shut her eyes. No. No, she couldn't.

His fingers tightened in her hair. The bloodlust swelled, rasped over raw nerves. His shields were down. She felt him struggle against the urge to feed before he tore his mouth from her throat.

His voice was harsh. "I'm sorry. I won't be able to stop if—"

"I know," she said, and this time they sounded like words instead of the slap of a sheep's stomach against a butcher's block.

His gaze fell; he quickly met her eyes again. "It's closed." He lifted his hand from her chest. "This, too."

She nodded and watched as he gathered himself and looked around the room.

"Where are we?"

"Caelum. My apartment." She couldn't read his expression or his scent and didn't know how he'd interpret what he saw.

It was bare. Everything she needed or wanted she kept in her cache. No bed was in the room, because she didn't sleep. There was only one long, ruby red sofa that Colin, horrified by the lack of decoration, had asked her to pick from a magazine and then purchased for her. She rarely sat on it; she was rarely here.

And white. A lot of white.

She'd have hated it when she was human; white invariably became ivory, then yellow, then dingy. But nothing in Caelum was dirty or needed cleaning.

Except for them. She vanished the blood and created a new dress, then sank back on her heels. "Do you want to change?" She couldn't take his possessions without permission.

He drew in a breath. "I need to get back."

She probed his psyche, felt his resistance before he allowed her in. He also needed to feed. The bloodlust would be a distraction; his hunger was a weakness the demon might use against him.

"Your vampires have locked themselves in the theater? How secure is it?"

"It's a large studio we've reinforced with steel. It could keep me out," Lucas said. "I don't think it would Andrea."

But it would take effort for the demon to reach the vampires… and anything that took effort would be noticed. "I'll send two Guardians through the Gate; they can watch over the building until we return."

His mouth hardened, and he rose fluidly to his feet. "How long?"

She didn't stand. "When my chest stops feeling like a demon shot me with a crossbow. When my body replaces some of the blood I lost. Maybe when I don't feel so damn tired."

Her muscles tensed, locked into place. The last had fallen from her tongue without thought, but it was true. And her lungs were tight, but it had nothing to do with a demon.

Nothing to do with Lucas, either. Except that, for a short time, he'd held on to her, and it had been good. It had been what she'd used to get from Caelum, from simply being a Guardian.

She glanced up. His large body was motionless, in his quiet predatory stance. His eyes were alert, searching her expression, seeking… what?

She wasn't certain what she was looking for anymore, either. Just something different than what she had. Something for herself.

"Send them through the Gate," he said softly.

Don't open the door.

She'd said the sun was up; why wasn't he in the daysleep? Lucas prowled the length of the room. And what kind of apartment was this? Spacious, open, clean-empty. Marble columns divided the large room into living areas, but obviously nothing lived here.

The silence was absolute. He thought he'd known quiet. Leave the city behind, and there was only the whisper of the wind and the rustle of life.

Caelum was beyond quiet. Eerily so.

Selah arrived soundlessly, but the rhythm of her heartbeat made him aware of her presence before he turned to face her, before she said, "I managed to find four available. Two are novices, but they can keep watch over the theater while the other two sweep the city."

Though she'd met with other Guardians, she hadn't changed from her dress into the white gown. The skirt swirled around her knees when she shifted her weight to her right leg.

A thin jeweled strap circled her ankle; another crossed the top of her foot. Her toenails were unpainted.

"Why," he said as he stalked toward her, "do you say that as if it's a miracle in itself? Why is no one available and no one here?"

Her fingers hooked into the wave of blond hair above her forehead. She brushed it back, uncertainty firming her lips, hesitation clouding her psychic scent. "We're trying to keep knowledge of it from the demons."

He could easily guess what lay unspoken in that statement: To keep this secret from the demons, the Guardians told no one. Yet whatever the secret, she was revealing it to him. He'd seen her caution with her friends; she didn't offer her trust lightly.

And he didn't know what had made her decide that he deserved it, but he couldn't deny his fierce rising pleasure. She'd let him in. "`It'?"

"An Ascension. Most demons assume we are still a force of thousands. If they knew the truth-and without Lucifer to check themthey might become too bold. Particularly in their aggression against vampires, because killing them doesn't break the Rules."

Her chin tilted up at his approach, and his gut clenched. A pink, quarter-sized blotch marred the golden skin at the base of her throat.

It should have been his mark. Her breath whispered out on a sigh when he smoothed his thumb across the spot.

Still healing. He'd fed well the previous night. He could ignore his hunger until she'd regained her strength, and as long as he didn't have her blood, he could resist the bloodlust. Giving in wasn't inevitable until that first sip.

But her throat was a near-irresistible temptation; it was best to keep his mouth filled with questions. "An Ascension?"

"When a Guardian no longer wants to serve—oh!" Her hands clasped over his shoulders when he lifted her against him, and she laughed breathily before she continued, "He can become human again and Fall, or choose to Ascend and go on to Heaven. Or Hell, if he's damned. Either way, they go on to judgment."

Her legs slid over his hips as he strode to the sofa. His arousal confronted his softened flesh, and the resulting ache told him desire was slowly winning. Ah, thank God. He wouldn't take her now, but damn if it wasn't good to know it still worked.

He lowered her to the cushion, arranged her lengthwise before sitting and draping her legs over his thighs. "So, essentially, they choose to die."

"Yes." Her toes curled as he lifted her ankle, unbuckled the strap. "There's nothing left. They just disappear. Essentially," she said on a soft moan as he ran his thumbs over the ball of her foot, "Michael has to kill them. Sometimes, they don't do it individually. Last time, it was several thousand who'd decided we didn't have a place in modern society or a role protecting humans from demons any longer. I think I'm falling in love with you."

His heart stopped for an instant, until he realized it was the motion of his hands over her sole that had drawn the declaration from her. Not, he mused, unlike a man in bed at the moment of climax. In moments of extreme pleasure, it probably really was love.

And it just gave him more reason to continue pleasuring her. "Did they not realize demons had escaped Hell?"

Her eyes were closed, her head supported by the armrest. "They did it before Lucifer lost his wager."

He pressed his thumbs against her heel. Her back arched, her hips canting down and her knees bending as if she'd just accepted a lover into her body, taken that first deep thrust.

Yes, everything was working perfectly. He struggled to recall why, why, why he was touching only her feet.

There was no reason. He ran his palms up the length of her calves.

"And I despise them for that," she said softly. With a touch of wonder, as if she'd just realized it.

His voice was equally low. "Because they didn't do their duty?"

"Yes." Her unapologetic gaze met his. "It was their choice, their right. But considering how few of us remain and how many demons there were—still are—it was also unforgivably selfish."

He didn't reply, massaging the indentations below her knees, skimming his fingers behind and relishing her shiver. He pressed them farther apart, until her left thigh was flush against the back of the sofa. The skirt of her dress slid up, bunched at her hips.

Smooth, absolutely bare. Glistening with moisture.

His mind went blank.

His mouth was supposed to be doing something. Not what he suddenly wanted to do, but talking. Asking. His tongue was heavy, but he managed to say, "So I was correct." No. That wasn't a question.

Her breath was coming in sharp pulls. Her nipples beaded, rising against the thin cotton bodice with each quick inhalation. "Yes. I was angry with myself for being reluctant to feed you. I wasn't doing my duty."

"And upset with me." Her thighs trembled beneath his hands. His mouth cheated and spoke against her inner knee. Still not a question. "It doesn't have to be one or the other. It was both."

"Yes." It was almost a laugh. "Yes."

"Yes?" Lucas wasn't certain what he was asking now. Answering.

She was staring at his mouth, the slide of his tongue over her skin. "Feed from me. This time, because you want to."

Unbearable need ripped through him. Hunger. His erection strained within the confines of his jeans. His gaze lifted to her neck. Beneath the pink circle in the hollow of her throat, her pulse beat a rapid pace.

That was why he had intended to wait. Why he still would. "I will. Later. Why so reluctant? You knew you could stop me if you didn't want to have sex."

A light flush of arousal stained her shoulders, her chest, her cheeks. The tension within her was high, but he didn't mistake her sudden stillness for simple desire. "I couldn't save him."

What did that have to do with feeding… ? Ah, yes. "The vampire—Colin?"

"Yes. In Chaos."

"He looked alive and well to me." He shouldn't have begun this line of questioning. He didn't want her thinking of another vampire now. Not a warm and tanned vampire. Not an unbelievably beautiful one, who'd made Lucas reconsider his own sexuality for about half a minute.

He blinked in realization. Jesus Christ, he was jealous. Of someone she'd already told him was a friend.

But his jealousy and the surprise it produced faded when a sad and frightened smile touched her mouth. "Appearances are deceiving."

She'd said that of her appearance, too. Of her perfect, angelic form. "So, because you didn't save him, you thought you'd fail with me?"

"That it would end badly." Her shoulders lifted; embarrassment fluttered through her psychic scent. "Irrational, maybe."

As was his jealousy. "So you aren't perfect."

"No." Her eyes sparkled with amusement. "I suppose I am not. Are you disappointed?"

"That you aren't Vampire Barbie? No."

Her soft laughter held no surprise, no offense.

"You've heard that before," Lucas realized.

"Yes."

"Many times?" Idiots. She had an exquisite face, a flawless body—but they weren't artificial or plastic.

"Enough. In different variations, depending on the human culture." She regarded him through lowered lashes. "When I learned to shape-shift, I chose to be this. It fit what I imagined a Guardian to be. Two hundred and fifty years ago, it might have been fake. Just an image. Now, it's me."

He'd assumed that, like him, Guardians simply stopped agingor in Selah's case, regressed to an earlier form. "This isn't you when you were young?"

She shook her head. "I don't even remember what that was. I know what I looked like when I was old and when I died. But it's more natural to hold this form—and the wings—than to shift to my human one."

"Considering that you were the same age as my mother is now, and I wouldn't want to associate her with you"—he grazed his fingertips down the inside of her thigh "like this in any way, it's best that you don't."

Her laughter filled the room with its golden tones. Empty, surrounded by hard white walls, but the sound didn't echo. And as she rose up, curling her legs beneath her, the sofa erased the whisper of her movement.

"No Grandmama jokes," she murmured against his jaw. "I'm no longer dizzy. And I don't know how you've done it, but I don't feel tired now. We ought to get back to Ashland."

"Yes," he said, but not yet. He cupped the curve of her ass, brought her up, over him. Not to his mouth, he hadn't that much strength; his will wasn't so powerful that he could resist a bite. But his hands…

He slipped them in between their bodies, down. So unbelievably silky and warm and slick. His groan was rough, harsh. He closed his mouth and drew in a long breath, filled his lungs with her sweet feminine scent, and wondered why he didn't breathe more often.

Selah panted his name and rolled her hips toward him. His fingers slid through wet and heat. Into wet and heat. Unadulterated pleasure speared through him, just from this touch.

His hands were falling in love with her.

And his mouth. He nibbled at the upper bow of her lips, teased the lush bottom before sweeping in, devouring. Thank God for older, experienced women who could take the hunger in his kiss and still accept more, insist on more. Strong women, who could prevent him from doing the same when the bloodlust flared and burned. Not now, not yet.

As if she'd heard him, Selah ripped her mouth from his and buried her face in his neck. She didn't allow him the same angle, though the bloodlust demanded he bend his head and drink.

Her lips moved, and she licked beneath his jaw, her every exhalation a short burst of heated air over his skin. His fingers stroked and parted. His thumb found the slippery taut bud that made her tense, made her hips jerk in a frantic slide against him.

"Lucas—I want… I want…"

He didn't know when her soft moans had become words, only that they were explosive fuel to his inflamed senses. He tried to hold on. The effort of his response made his voice a growl. "To come?"

He couldn't, not without blood. And if he took hers, he wouldn't be able to help himself. He would lose control to the bloodlust.

"You."

Her reply, her body—they were like honey, warm and sticky, dripping and tugging. Enticing him to feed. God, but he'd love to help himself.

She met his lips, spoke against them. Waiting. Her voice was thick. "Do you want it?"

A groan rumbled up from his chest. She must know he did. Why had he made her ask?

"Yes." This was either going to be very torturous, or very good. Or both. He drew back slightly when she would have deepened the kiss. "Don't let me feed, Selah."

A smile tilted the corners of her mouth. "For how long?"

Older, knowledgeable women… who understood vampires. "Until you can't stop me."

She bit her lip, rocking forward against his hand. Her clothes vanished. His mouth dried. Gorgeous edible nipples, buds of coral swaying amidst an ocean of pale gold. "It won't be long," she said.

"No." For her, for him.

"Next time."

"Yes."

He should make her promise there would be a next time. He would have, but the shock and pleasure of her naked skin against his stole his breath. The thrust of her tongue into his mouth prevented his taking another.

Her hands circled his shaft and stroked him from base to tip. The sound of her appreciative murmur was lost beneath the blood pounding in his head.

And he should have known. He should have realized how she'd do it. All at once, as she'd taken the nail from his hand, the bolt from her chest.

She rose and fell and her body swallowed him with a tight push of her hips and thighs.

She muffled her cry against his lips. His hands clenched on her waist, and for an instant he was frozen, impaled within her, his stomach trembling and his head spinning as if she'd taken him somewhere new and extraordinary.

"Lucas," she said, and though she didn't move, she sank further onto him, lodging him deep, surrounding him with slick flesh. Heavier. Soft feathers swept his legs. Amazement and euphoria coiled through her psychic scent; she was breathless, quaking. "It's so good."

He lifted her, chasing the movement with an upward plunge. So wet. Her back arched, and they were enfolded in white. Unbelievable.

Her hair tumbled away from her throat. His arousal spiked, tearing at his fangs and gut. His arms shook with the need to pull her to his lips, to feed.

Talk. Fill his mouth with words. "Selah. Hold me down."

It should have been a battle. It might have looked like one as she pushed him flat on the length of the sofa and leaned forward, drawing his hands over his head, pinning them.

Captured, by appearance. Trapped. But it was release. Lucas surged against her, into her, without resistance.

He didn't fight the bloodlust, but let it rage. He reveled in the ecstasy, the ache. Desperate with need, he delivered silken promises and threats.

And when she shuddered and tightened around him, collapsed against him with a hoarse moan and the whisper of her wings, he finally used his mouth to make good on them.

Chapter Nine

Selah was crouching in Pierre's opulent parlor when she realized that she'd worn the ribboned shoes again not because she liked them, but because she'd known how much Lucas did.

She'd never done that before.

Bemused, she stared at the rug beneath her feet. No stains marred its thick weave; Andrea must have vanished any blood that had spilled from the bullet wound.

"No traces of blood in their rooms," Lucas said. A shiver tingled over her skin—not just from the surprise of his announcement after his silent approach, but also because of the rough velvet lingering in his voice, abrading her nerves like the stroke of his tongue.

Warmth curled through her womb, licked at her sex. She clenched her thighs, but instead of easing the sweet ache, the pressure served to remind her of how his tongue had stroked—and how very good he was at it.

She shook herself, focused. "Nor here."

"Are you?" he said softly.

Selah glanced up. There was something different in him, too. His features had not changed; the planes and angles were as sharp, his gaze as quietly intense. "Am I… ?"

"Here." Amusement glittered in his eyes. The same color, but harder now. An effect of the feeding erasing the vestiges of animal blood? "A moment ago, I don't think you were."

Her lips curved. She hadn't been. She'd been on a red sofa, her wings folded tight beneath her, lifting her hips to his mouth. "I wasn't," she admitted. "I shouldn't disappear like that."

He held out his hand. She accepted the courtesy and rose with her palm against his. "Not without taking me with you," he said in a low voice.

Pleasure slid through her, heated and full, lightening her legs, her feet. She wanted to inch her way onto him, weightless. "And not while hunting demons."

"Yes." His fangs gleamed, and the anticipation she saw in his smile was not wholly for her.

Excitement twisted through her belly, shortened her breath. That was the difference. The predator was still there, but he'd unleashed it. That was good, too. They'd need it. "How did you know?"

"The demon?" At her nod, he said, "I initially thought it was Scott."

"The kid?"

"Yes. Until I realized I couldn't penetrate Andrea's psychic shields—and until I remembered that demons don't experience sexual need. Scott has an interest I don't encounter often."

"Oh?"

His lips quirked. "Do you want to know because it'll help us find Andrea?"

She shook her head, grinning.

"I can't tell you. You've forbidden grandma jokes."

Her eyes widened in surprise. "An obsession with someone who looks older? That is different. Particularly in a vampire community."

If anything, vampires were often transformed too young, by older vampires trying to reclaim their youth by taking an immature partner. They never physically aged, but after fifty or sixty years, they felt it in other ways.

He shrugged, then lifted his hand to brush a strand of hair back from her throat. "It's Ashland. And I apparently have the same fetish," he said.

He smiled when she burst into laughter. He trailed his fingers from her shoulder to her wrist, his gaze following the movement. Pleasure emanated from his scent, but it wasn't simply erotic.

He liked to touch, Selah realized. He enjoyed the physical connection.

So did she. Still laughing softly, she leaned into him, pressed a kiss to his mouth. "We'll keep knowledge of that quiet. Andrea might use it to her advantage." She sobered as she recognized the truth in that. "Not that she'd get far. Even if you didn't sense it psychically, you'd know. Their skin is hot—warmer than a human's."

"She covered hers. Long sleeves, high-necked shirts, pants."

Selah nodded. "And once you took her blood, she couldn't have hidden it. Scott was recently transformed?"

"Yes."

"She played on that, then. He was too young, knew nothing of demons and probably not much about his psychic abilities. It allowed her to live right in the heart of the community without being found out." Selah glanced around the room. It was luxurious, elegant. Yes, exactly the type of place a demon would like. "Pretending to be a vampire would have amused her, I think. The knowledge that she was deceiving you all in plain sight. Posing as a human or hiding wouldn't have been as gratifying to her ego."

"Demons drink blood?"

Selah grimaced. "They can. Just as they can fake being vampire or human. Or fake sex. What is it?" His brows had drawn together, a frown creasing his forehead. "I'm not disgusted by the idea of drinking blood in general. Just demons doing it."

He shook his head. "I was thinking of the sex."

"While hunting demons?"

His smile didn't reach his eyes, and the slick probe he sent through her mind startled her with its strength… and the resolve beneath it, wrapped around an overwhelming instinct to protect. "While feeding. Your response in Caelum was not just duty."

She stepped back, studying his face. She couldn't read it: she could only sense the tension coiling within him. Preparation to defend her… but from what? "No."

"What consequences are there?" His jaw tightened. "For lust? Fornication?"

Her lips parted in surprise, then slipped into an impish grin. "Thirty lashes. It's excruciating."

His stance relaxed, but slightly. "It's allowed?"

"I cannot count the number of orgies I stumbled across before the Ascension." Her smile faded. "But it's not allowed. That suggests permission, as if Guardians live and act by another's will—by Michael's will. Free will is honored in humans always, and Guardians and vampires whenever it's possible. There's not always a choice. But we don't judge or determine what is moral."

"I find that difficult to believe. You slay. You must judge."

"Demons and nosferatu were judged, but not by Guardians."

"And vampires?" he asked quietly. Very quietly.

"Being a vampire isn't immoral. But if one breaks the Rules and denies a human free will or kills one—yes, I'd judge him. I'd slay him. Humans can't."

"And a vampire who kills another vampire? Or denies another's free will?"

"That depends on the circumstances. If Andrea was a vampire and you couldn't slay her, I would. But I wouldn't slay a vampire for killing another in a bid for leadership. Nor for protecting and policing within his community, unless the methods he used were cruel and no other vampire had the strength to stop him." She knew Lucas had killed others; did he think she would slay him for that? "It's all intent. It's not the action; it's the reason behind it. Not just killing—anything. Even sex. The only immorality in sex is hurting someone with it. And even that isn't simple, especially if more than one person is involved. People can be careless. Or just concerned with protecting themselves more than someone else."

"Yes." His gaze held hers, unyielding. "So you will leave us to police ourselves?"

Her chest was tight. "What are you asking?" Was he speaking in general terms, meaning all Guardians and all vampires? Or Selah, specifically?

And why did the thought of leaving pull at her throat and lungs, burning like the bolts from the crossbow? A phantom pain.

He exhaled a short breath through his nose, a self-deprecating laugh quickly stifled. "Nothing. And we're ignoring our duty. I've got a roomful of vampires who need to know a demon is impersonating and sacrificing us."

"Yes. We ought to go." But she didn't want to. Not yet. Not until she discovered exactly what he'd meant.

Lucas turned away, glancing around the room. His back was rigid. "Is there anything I can give them? Any protection they can use if she takes them and a Guardian isn't available?"

"No."

His hands fisted. "There must be something. Some hope."

"A scream, and perhaps I or someone else might hear it and get help. It won't do any good to run, or to fight—but they might get lucky. I'll leave weapons. It could give them time. They should fight for as long as they can, but then… "

He swung around, his features taut. "What?" he rasped.

"If it's the end, they've got to give in. Die willingly." It sounded horrible, even to her ears. And she knew how easy it was, to make the decision. Letting go had been, too. But when it happened, when the cold and dark had taken her down, she'd fought it. "It would disrupt the Gate's transformation. Guardians are linked to Caelum's Gates through their self-sacrifice. Opening one to Hell depends on resistance—and that the victim isn't dying of their free will."

The edges of his lips were white. "I can't ask that of them."

"It might save others. If the Gate opens—" Selah broke off, closing her eyes. It didn't bear thinking about. The vampires would be slaughtered. So would many Guardians. "I'll be here, looking for her. I'll check the clearing frequently."

"Unless you're needed elsewhere."

Her teeth clenched, but there was no response to that. "Andrea can't take them out to the site during the day. She can't behead a pile of ashes. I'll do my best to be here, particularly after sunset. If I can't, I'll have someone else come."

Frustration poured from his psyche. "Will she feed me as well? I'd better change my goddamn sheets." He passed his hand through his hair, a muscle in his jaw flexing. He glanced up at her face and stilled. "Jesus. That was uncalled for. I'm sorry."

It was a struggle to force emotion into her expression; she finally managed indifference. "It's fair. You have no reason to think otherwise." She ran over whatever response he'd have made, slipping into her vampire form. "We'd best go. Is there a way in aside from teleportation?"

"No. Selah—"

"I won't be able to hide what I am, then. Will that be problematic for you? Undermine your authority?"

"Undermine… ? No. Hold on, just one damn second." He moved swiftly, silently, stepping forward and capturing her face with both hands, preventing her from looking away.

No, he couldn't do that. This was where she wanted to be, even with her chest and throat aching.

"All right. All right. We have to go. But first… listen," he said, and while she was still waiting for him to continue, Lucas covered her mouth with his.

She hadn't expected a kiss. And not one that was a gentle taste, an apology. But she'd been the one to put that anger in him, born of her own, so she lifted onto her toes, offered her apology in return.

All too soon, he drew back. His voice was harsh. "I'm twisted up. Not only you—it's the circumstances."

Not an excuse. Just a reason. "I am, too."

He nodded slowly, and she felt the tension easing from his solid form. His thumbs smoothed over her lips, pressed against her fangs. "Get rid of these. Go as you are."

She searched his face, found nothing but determination. "Are you certain?"

A smile touched his eyes, his mouth. "They'll appreciate it," he said dryly.

Lucas knew his vampires well.

Wearing her wings, Selah teleported into the small, crowded room. Per his request, they were unfolded. The apex of her left wing framed Lucas's head like a halo, her feathers a snowy backdrop.

She'd anticipated the stunned silence, but not the applause or the cries of "Bravo!"

Startled, she looked over at Lucas. He raised his brows, wry amusement filtering through his shields. They'd certainly appreciated it, she realized—but more the theatricality of their entrance than the display of strength behind him.

Until Lucas began outlining the danger the demon posed. Then their gazes became speculative, moving between Lucas and Selah, often pausing at her neck. Selah watched equally quietly, observing their reactions.

Perhaps Lucas was not a good actor, but he commanded their attention and silence—something that, Selah intuited, was not easy with this group. He spoke with authority, with confidence… and underscored it with concern, which they responded to more readily than his power.

A strange community. A leader who protected because he cared for them, rather than the control it gave him. And the vampires… Selah quickly touched each of their minds, came away astonished.

Though their physical appearances ranged from the teens to thirtysomethings, with a few—such as Marguerite—approaching up to sixty years of age, all but a few had been vampires for more than half a century.

They were almost all elders, but there was no tension among them. No viperous glances, no subtle backstabbing.

And though a wave of dismay and fear swept through the room when Lucas asked them to meet the end willingly, there was also determination and protection beneath it. If it saved their friends, they would do what was necessary.

A close-knit vampire community. It was… extraordinary. Different.

So, too, could their defense be. "Lucas," she said softly. "There might be another precaution you can take. Even if Andrea imitates one of you, her psychic blocks will be up. But if your community leaves their shields down, their minds open…"

"We'll know of the danger because hers won't be," he said, his gaze narrowing thoughtfully.

"Yes." She couldn't think of any other vampires who would willingly do so; there was too much infighting, too much hidden. "And if any other vampires are near and open, they might sense the fear and have time to alert us before Andrea can get them out to the clearing."

Lucas nodded, then looked back at the others. She saw the brief shudder of laughter that shook through him.

"This might be worse than death," he said.

By the time Selah teleported the twenty-ninth and thirtieth vampires from the secured room into their homes and left them a selection of weapons, her head was aching—and she knew far more about the members of Ashland's vampire community than she'd ever wanted to know.

She'd been wrong: They were in competition with one another, with a need to prove they could be the most outrageous, possess the most angst, the darkest soul, the greatest drama—and to see who could mentally project each accomplishment the hardest.

It was entertaining, she decided—but exhausting. When she returned to the theater and found Lucas alone, she couldn't contain her sigh of relief. His face was set, drawn. Tired. Dawn wasn't far off, and it had been a difficult evening. A difficult month.

The studio was empty. She and Lucas reflected in the mirror at the opposite end, and her voice echoed against the hardwood floors. "They walked home?"

Pierre, Marguerite, and Scott had been in the room when Selah had left, but there was little danger in their leaving on foot: Their apartment was directly down the street.

"Yes." Humor slid from his scent. "I think Scott's going to be happy with the new arrangement he'll have with Pierre and Marguerite."

"A threesome?" Not unusual among vampires, but she wouldn't have guessed they would participate in one.

"I don't think they're strangers to a menage. Marguerite would not allow Pierre to transform her until her children were grown and had no further need of her. But they lived together for decades before that."

"Oh." Pierre must have had a vampire partner in those years. A human couldn't feed a vampire every day. "Your community surprises me," she admitted. "I think they must have surprised Andrea, too."

"Why is that?" Lucas glanced at her face before his gaze moved to her wings. He reached, and his fingers trailed over the downy frame, the feathers below.

"She would've expected that killing Olivia would throw everyone into disarray—and that in the ensuing chaos and battle over leadership, she'd be able to carry out the other sacrifices. And set it up so that the deaths could be blamed on that, instead of something outside the community. Instead, she had to look elsewhere for her victims, or risk you becoming suspicious."

"Why Olivia then? Why not me? I'm more of a threat."

"Yes, you are the strongest, the community's protector… but you couldn't save Olivia. Demons love guilt." She hesitated. "Did everyone know about the complications in your relationship?"

His hand stilled on the outside sweep of her wing. "It's not something you can conceal for twenty years. And she never hid her love for David, though she was openly grateful to me for saving her lifeand willingly performed her duty as my consort. It was… beautifully tragic." His mouth twisted. "And I fucked my best friend's wife every night."

Her heart contracted, tight and heavy. "Andrea must have been hoping to exacerbate your guilt, then."

His features hardened, stark anguish in the rigid set of his face. "It worked."

"Lucas," she said softly. "Whatever Olivia told you afterward, or during, so that she could preserve that fantasy… she wanted you, too."

"I know." It was harsh, ripped from him. "Otherwise I would have been able to stop it."

As Selah had been strong enough to stop him. She wound her arms around his neck, hugged him close. His hands fisted behind her back, between her wings, his embrace strong enough to make her lungs burn. She pressed her mouth to the skin below his ear, inhaled the masculine scent of him.

He drew back, his eyes like green flame as he stared down at her. "Selah," he said, and kissed her as thoroughly as she'd ever been kissed. Each silken plunge shivered through her, a dip into a cool refreshing well.

Cleansed. Awakened. Renewed.

Her pulse was racing when he finished, her legs trembling. His hands cradled her jaw, and she looked at him, shaken to her core.

She was falling for him.

Her fingers clenched on his shoulders. Did that mean another kind of Fall was in her future? How could she choose—was there a choice? He could give her immortality again, but she wouldn't be a Guardian. And could she live with herself if she left them now?

"Selah?"

She swallowed past the ache in her throat. It wasn't a decision she could make immediately, anyway. "We should go… through the city. Look for Andrea. Until dawn."

Lucas touched her brow. "What is it?"

"Nothing." She turned her cheek against his hand, glanced up at him from under her lashes. "Shall we walk?"

Chapter Ten

It was good with him. As they made a slow circuit of downtown, Selah pushed away everything but the search for the demon. And Lucas.

"Does your mother live in Ashland?" She paused in front of an ice cream shop, testing the lingering scent of waffle cones.

Lucas halted a few feet farther. His hair fell over his forehead as he glanced back at her. "No. In Seattle, near my sister and her children. I visit them twice a year, but it's safer they don't come here." His nostrils flared slightly. "Can you taste?"

Selah nodded. Vampires couldn't—only blood. "I don't need to eat, and usually don't. Now and then, however, something smells so incredible it's irresistible. Popcorn. The satay in the open-air markets in Bangkok. Have you been to any?"

"Not Thailand. In Nepal and India." A shadow passed over his face. "With David, the summer after our second year of law school."

She watched him stroll back to her side, his hands tucked into his pockets. "The Himalayas?"

"Yes." A smile deepened the firm curve of his mouth. "Mountains and caves. We spent most of our free time climbing up them, skiing down them, or going through them." A crease appeared between his brows, and his gaze searched her face. "What is it? Whenever I speak of caves—or you mention the Chaos realm—you get this expression that reminds me of a defendant just prior to the reading of a verdict."

She smiled a little. "You weren't a lawyer that long," she said, and began walking again.

He adopted a tone as light as hers was, but she could feel his disappointment. "No. But late-night TV is much better than it used to be, even if the commercials are as bad."

She caught his hand and met his eyes. "I don't want it overheard," she said quietly. "I trust you, I'll tell you… but not here."

Lucas's palm was cool; his fingers tightened around hers. "Thank you." He didn't relinquish her hand as they continued walking. "Will Andrea abandon her plan? She's been found out, the vampires are watching for her, and you are protecting the city."

"No." They passed an all-night cafe. Bitter coffee and the light, sweet scent of marijuana. Snippets of a conversation debating the merits of hemp. Amused, Selah shook her head and explained, "Many demons are cowards, but Michael said she is likely bound by a bargain. If that's true, she'll be desperate to complete it."

"Why? "

"In Hell, there's a territory for people—and demons—who don't fulfill their bargains. It's a field of the damned, and they are frozen into the ground with only their faces exposed. Frozen for eternity, but aware and able to feel."

He stopped, stared at her. "You're serious."

"Yes."

"Have you seen it?"

Her lungs felt pierced by a skewer. "Yes. There's a Pit, too, and the tortures there are bad enough. Just as you probably think of it, too-fiery, rotting, and stinking. But the field and those faces are…" She couldn't think of a description terrible enough to convey the horror of it. "But a few months ago, I learned that the Punishment for failure is even worse than that."

"How did you learn it?" Lucas asked, his voice deep and rough and then he frowned, turning to the east. "Goddammit. The sun's coming up."

"Good." When he glanced at her in surprise, she said, "Prepare yourself."

She teleported into thick, warm air. The heavy fragrance of tropical vegetation. The tumbling rush of a waterfall.

Lucas blinked quickly. "Shit." A laugh rumbled through the word, and he dragged his free hand through his hair. "I should get used to that. Where are we?"

Selah tried not to think about how much she wanted him to become accustomed to it. "An island in the Pacific. Two time zones west."

"And alone?" His focus shifted, closed in on her. A predator, with the target in sight. And this time not to kill or devour—but to defend.

"Yes." She drew in a long breath. "The Chaos realm. Lucifer brought his dragon from there, but he hasn't been able to access it for centuries. But Colin's blood is tainted—and it anchors him to the realm."

"And that's why you don't want the demon to overhear," he said. She nodded. "If they knew, they'd try to gain access, and the power of it… I can imagine what they'd do to him." She closed her eyes. "Anyway, I fed him. Or rather, Colin fed from me." Lucas stiffened. "What do you mean?"

She couldn't halt her blush. "Lilith knocked me unconscious and gave me to him." Her brows lifted when his face darkened. "That didn't happen. He likes them awake so they can appreciate his beauty. And even after I regained consciousness, I didn't want him, so it wasn't an issue. But later, we were attacked by a demon and a few nosferatu—and I tried to teleport us to safety. His anchor was too strong. We ended up in Chaos; I couldn't teleport us back out."

"Were you weakened by the feeding?" His voice was rough.

"No. And it's a matter of will rather than physical strength." Even Michael could not journey to Chaos without an anchor. "But we weren't certain of that then, so he refused to feed from me. And I refused to leave him there alone. We were both terrified. It's—" She broke off, had to swallow. "The sky isn't of air. It's a frozen mass of dangling bodies. Their faces are frozen into the ceiling, but they're constantly screaming. And the dragons eat them. And their bodies regrow, and they're eaten again."

She was shaking; Lucas circled his arms around her, dropped his forehead against hers. "And you think this is what happens to the people who didn't fulfill their bargains—who are frozen in that field in Hell? They span the two realms?"

"Yes. And there are other creatures. Wyrmwolves. We had to flee from them—to a mountain and the caves. But they still came after us."

"How long?"

"Almost a week," she whispered. "Colin was starving by the end of it. And he finally told me to leave on my own. To see if I could teleport back to Earth without him. I could. I found Michael, and he brought Colin back. Michael told me he had to heal him, first. A lot of healing. I don't know what happened, but I keep thinking if I had just forced Colin to feed, then he wouldn't have been so weak… maybe would have been able to fight."

He drew back. "Does he blame you?"

"No. But that doesn't make it easier. I'm a Guardian. I have this Gift. I should have been able to save him; instead I left him alone."

He smiled slightly. "It sounds to me that you did what you had to do."

A short laugh broke from her, but it ended on a long sigh. "Maybe."

"Yes," he said, and held her against him until her trembling eased. "Better?"

She pressed her lips together and nodded, unable to say anything. It would have probably been a declaration of something she didn't yet know she could have.

Letting go of her hand, Lucas stepped out onto the edge of the cliff, looking out over the night-darkened beach. She joined him. Two hundred feet below, waves broke against a narrow line of black sand. To their left, a stream of water slipped over the edge and frothed into a pool before spilling across a stone shelf into the ocean.

He grinned, and his fangs gleamed in the pale moonlight. "If I fail, will you catch me? My personal hang glider?"

She formed her wings. "Yes. Always."

His grin failed. He looked from her wings to the rocks below, and the jesting tone in his voice was replaced with a note of wonder. "I haven't done this in far too long," he murmured.

Lucas didn't fall. He jumped.

Her heart stopped before pounding into sudden, exhilarating life again. She dove, her feathers tight against her body, arrowing after him.

Streamlined. But Lucas had his arms and legs outspread, his body positioned to catch the most air, to create the greatest resistance and slow his descent. He'd obviously done this before. Parachuting?

She caught up to him halfway down the side of the cliff, slamming into his back and wrapping her arms around his chest. She tripled the size of her wings, but didn't unfold them. Her shout was nearly lost beneath the rush of air through the mass of feathers. "Tell me when!"

His laughter vibrated against her breasts, her belly; the sound was whipped away by the wind.

A breathless second passed. Two. And at the moment Selah knew she would have to open her wings or risk injuring him, she heard his "Now!" and snapped them wide, felt the strain across her back, painless but incredibly strong, and still going so fast though not just down, down.

She angled her wingtip, and they banked to the left, gliding now. The beach was dotted with rocks and gravel. There was no smooth landing there. "The ocean or the pool?"

"The pool," he said, his voice a low growl, and she skimmed above it before letting him go and vanishing her wings. She dropped like a tossed stone and splashed into cool, churning water.

Lucas dragged her against him before she surfaced.

The water roared in her ears. Her hair floated in front of her face, obscuring her vision before he anchored it back to capture her lips.

So incredibly good. The suction of his mouth pulled at the line of nerves from her tongue to her sex, streaking a path of heat and need. She wrapped her legs around his hips, felt the powerful flex of his muscles, the thick ridge of his erection as he pushed away from the bottom of the pool.

She was still kissing him as they broke the surface, and didn't draw breath. Her palms slicked his hair from his forehead; wet, his pale skin shone pearlescent beneath the moon.

Like Caelum's marble might have, had that realm ever been touched by moonlight.

A moan of protest rose in her throat when he stiffened and lifted his head. Her skirt billowed and drifted up between them, teasing her gently kicking legs as she treaded water.

"Selah." He said it on a rough inhalation. "No bad moments? Under water?"

Her lips parted. He'd thought of that when even she didn't? When arousal raged through his psychic scent? "No." Smiling, she added, "And I notice that the cold water had no ill effects on your ego, either."

His brows tilted at a wicked angle, as he pulled her close to murmur against her lips, "There was a reason Olivia wanted me."

She gasped and buried her face in his neck, her body shaking. Guilt tinged his scent, but if he could laugh at himself, make a joke of it, then even that might wane.

And as pleasing as his size was, Selah thought it had been his quiet predatory nature—and how easily he used it for defense as well as the hunt. Olivia must have felt secure with him. Probably couldn't help but admire the strength of him, inside and out.

If she hadn't, then she truly had been an idiot.

Selah's laughter slowly faded. When he tried to find her mouth again, she slipped away, submerging herself. She clenched her thighs around his calf to hold steady and fumbled at the buttons of his jeans. Easier to vanish them, but though her hands were awkward on the soaked denim, baring him to her sight one button at a time seemed the most erotic, miraculous discovery.

She surrounded him with the heat of her mouth, took him deep. His hoarse groan carried through the density of the water. Her fingers dug into the tight muscle of his ass, felt the tremors ripping through him as she suckled and licked.

But not to completion. He couldn't come without blood, and she could offer him none from there. It would be torture to stay too long, though the sounds he made and the pleasure radiating from him tempted her to continue.

She kissed her way back up his torso, broke the surface, and found herself hauled to the end of the pool, where the water slid over the shelf before tumbling onto the beach. Her nipples pebbled beneath his lips, his teeth. The smooth stone was cool against her back, his mouth a perfect match. His tongue was a glorious shock to her heated flesh, the slick folds of her sex.

His hand clasped her hip, lifted her to him as he rose above her, positioned himself. His skin was taut, his jaw clenching. His eyes closed as he pressed inside. "God. Selah." His chin dropped to his chest. "So hot."

And tight. Her back arched against the thick intrusion. Easier to do it fast, but lacking this exquisite anticipation, the slow stretch of her body around his length. She moaned when he finished the long stroke, and she didn't know if it was in pleasure, or disappointment that it was done.

But Lucas wasn't done. She wouldn't have tortured him, but he must have himself, and he wrung cries from her until she twisted beneath him, shuddering her ecstasy. And still he took more, another thrust and another, each one better than the first.

She barely felt the prick of his fangs, but the rush of euphoria tore another orgasm from her. And this time, he went with her.

Chapter Eleven

Lucas woke with Selah pressed naked and warm against his side. He blinked rapidly in surprise; his last memory was of walking through the surf with her and sensing the tingling on the back of his neck that told him dawn was approaching.

"You're up," she said, turning and propping herself up on her elbow. Her breasts were firm and round and perfect.

"Not yet." He had to force moisture onto his tongue. "But I'm certain I will be soon."

"That's bad." Her nose wrinkled when she grinned. "I'm not nude." He looked. The edge of the sheet rose to her sleek waist. "It's difficult to tell."

She slid it over her hip. Bare. "I'm wearing my shoes," she explained, lifting her leg and pointing her toes. Winding black satin, tied behind her knee and trailing all the way down her thigh to…

Oh, Jesus Christ. He swallowed. Tried to think. Those ribbons were more destructive than animal blood. "Were you in bed with me all day?"

"No." Her lashes fell. "I wanted to be here when you woke up. The daysleep took you immediately after we teleported back."

"Ah," he said. It was all he could manage when her fist wrapped around him.

"But I can't stay long. The sun's set. I should make another sweep of the city, keep watch at the clearing."

He closed his eyes, his hands clenching in the mattress at his sides. "All right."

"Lucas."

"Just a moment. I'm being touched by an angel."

"I've heard that one before, too," she said dryly. Her palm circled the crown of his shaft, and she tugged lightly. "Will you be here alone?"

Concern lay beneath the question and arrested his attention. He searched her gaze, found humor and arousal in the quiet blue… and something darker. Something that made his stomach tighten with need, that provoked an instinct to hunt and trap and keep.

He pounced, pinned her under him. And knew she stayed because she wanted to. "I'm not hungry," he said softly.

Her skin was flushed, her reply breathless. "I'm not here to feed you. But we have to hurry. And I need to know where you'll be tonight."

He could do both at once. "Marguerite is inviting everyone over. Easier to protect them if they're in one place." Pushing inside her was like heaven.

Her head tilted back against the pillows, her body a strung bow beneath him. "Is that wise?" she gasped. "With all of them open?"

Open. His hand found her ribboned calf, and he drew it up, hooked her knee over his arm. Shoved deep. "No. But entertaining." His voice was a rough growl. "Let me in."

Her eyes were glazed. She answered, but he wasn't certain what it meant. Or if it was even language.

"Your blocks."

"Oh," she whispered. And then he was enfolded in her, his mind encompassed by a psychic scent so powerful he could almost smell it. Almost taste it. Sunshine and heat.

The bloodlust ripped through him. He sank into her with his body and fangs and dropped his own shields.

She trembled, shook. Her heel scraped over his back. "Lucas!" It was a ragged cry, and it echoed through her veins. Lucas.

He almost drew back in shock, but delved deeper, drinking. Listening. Not a voice, but it was Selah, a brush of warmth and light.—So good so good so good—

Unbearably arousing, to hear her pleasure. To feel it. He braced his arm and rocked hard into her, against her. Her blood was lightning over his tongue, winding electric tendrils down his spine, charging his nerves, drawing tight and sparking over his skin, in his gut.

Her trembling abruptly stopped, and she arched beneath him. Her slick heat clasped rhythmically around him; ecstasy shot into his mouth, and he couldn't hold on. His climax rushed through his blood, released a storm of sensation. And beneath it he heard—

—falling in love with you I think I could love you—

But it could have been his voice. It could have been his.

He was taking too long.

Lucas glanced at his watch, shook his head. At his feet, the box of theater paraphernalia was half-full.

Olivia's walls were half-bare.

He knew what had possessed him to start this task, but he didn't have to finish it that evening. It was enough that he'd begun.

He turned and found his reason watching him, a smile curving her cupid's-bow mouth. "You're late," she said. "Everyone's expecting you. And I believe every one of them sensed what we were doing in bed earlier."

Perhaps that was why her shields were up. Not completely, but tight and strong. He gestured to the box. "Marguerite and Pierre might want a few of the posters or photos; I'll mitigate the damage with this."

She glanced around the room. She stood evenly on both feet, her thumbs tucked into the waistband of her skirt. "If you give me permission, I can vanish it all into my cache. Dump it at a charity."

"Maybe another time," he said easily, though apprehension coiled in his stomach. Dump it. Such a careless phrase. He'd sensed that Selah didn't think much of Olivia, but she'd kept it well hidden. For his sake. He knelt and lifted the box. "Perhaps my next consort will enjoy feeding and fucking me in her predecessor's bed."

The hurt that crossed her features and projected from her psychic scent was well done. Olivia, in her best role, had never come as close to convincing him.

But Selah would have shown nothing at all. "That wasn't kind of me. I'm sorry," Lucas said. "I'm just wound up."

Her face brightened. "I can think of a way to unwind you." She formed her wings. "Flying… and we can swing by and check the Gate on the way to Pierre's."

"I think a walk might be what I need, actually." A slow walk. Take as much time as possible. "To clear my head." His shields would be down; he had to fill his mind with thoughts of Selah.

The real one.

The demon's smile widened. "That sounds lovely."

His gun was downstairs. He had nothing to fight with. And he'd seen her speed, her strength.

Go willingly, he thought.

It was the hardest damn thing he'd ever done.

On her second pass over the city, Selah flew low over Pierre and Marguerite's apartment. Voices and minds and music were all at high volume; she teleported to the balcony, then raised her shields as high as she could without alarming the vampires.

"That made me want to puke," said one from the shadows. "The beaming from one place to another."

Selah turned, recognized the teenager. Scott. An unlit cigarette was in his hand. "It does many people."

"And vampires. But not Guardians?"

"Some."

"Demons?"

She smiled and glanced through the balcony doors into the apartment. She didn't see Lucas in the crowd, and it was too loud—in every possible way—to pinpoint him by sound or psyche. "I don't teleport many."

"Why not just send them back to Hell?"

"They'd be able to return through the Gates…" She broke off, shaking her head. "Not anymore. But before, it was better just to try to kill them than risk them coming back."

"Can't you drop them into a volcano?"

"If they couldn't fly, and if lava would kill them, I would," she said, trying not to laugh. "And I have to touch them; getting that close makes me too vulnerable."

"You can't just beam their head off?"

"That would be nice." She sighed, imagining it. A simple, quick death. "But no. I can't take bits. Nor can I teleport them into something… like halfway through a wall, cutting them in two."

His disappointment was palpable. "That sucks."

"Yes." She searched the faces inside again.

"Mr. Marsden isn't here yet. After that psychic blast we got from you guys, Marguerite says that he's probably frozen in a sexual stupor. Her words, not mine," he hastily added.

Her sword glinted in the spill of light from the apartment. "Get inside," she said and teleported.

And hovered above a forest of conical fir trees, their branches thick with needles. She couldn't see through them to the ground. But she could hear Lucas. Could hear his heavy steps. Heard her voice answering him.

Her heart pounded; a cold sweat broke over her skin. Lucas wouldn't have been tricked by imitation. Very possibly, the demon had her sword at his back. At his neck.

And Selah couldn't see him to protect him. She flew up, silently—and waited for them to reach the clearing.

Lucas glanced up once, and saw a shadow moving across the top of the trees.

"What is it?" the demon asked, her chin tilting back. Her palm was warm—hot—against his. Her hair was a long blond cascade down her back.

"An owl, perhaps. Maybe a vulture." He prayed it was a gorgeous winged woman with the sexiest lips and shoes he'd ever seen. Tugging her forward again, he said, "Did you find any evidence that Andrea is still in Ashland?"

"No. Perhaps she'll give up."

"Yes," he said in a contemplative tone. "Once she realizes all of us will submit, negating the effect of the ritual, she'll look elsewhere." Her fingers tightened on his. He was a terrible actor, but he pretended to shake himself and added, "No. She'd already taken four victims in other cities. Any others she finds won't know to give in."

He felt the speculative gaze she ran over his features, but kept his focus on the path ahead of them.

"Yes," she finally said.

"I wonder what sort of bargain it was," he said. "What kind of terms could be set? What sort of negotiations does a demon have with Lucifer?"

Her voice was sweet, light. It set his teeth on edge. "He probably caught her as she tried to flee through the Gates before they were closed. I imagine he said something very much like: Return to Hell within six months, or I'll torture you for eternity within the Pit."

His brows rose. "That's a bargain?"

"She wouldn't have much choice. And he allowed her to live, allowed her through the Gate to Earth; returning is equivalent to going, and an eternity of torture is still life. In Lucifer's mind, it's an equal bargain." She angled her head, looked at him from below her lashes. "Is it true? That a willing sacrifice can upset the ritual?"

A chill swept over his skin. "Yes."

Her eyes began to shine, the whites changing to red, glowing crimson ringing the blue. "I shall have to make it very, very difficult for you not to resist me, then."

She squeezed; a bone in his hand snapped. Another. He ground his teeth together, white-hot pain streaking up his arm.

"Make it painful enough, and I'll beg you to kill me," he gritted out.

"That won't do," she said. "But it'll be fascinating to discover where your threshold between resistance and pleading lies. I'll admit I didn't take the time to find Olivia's. It was just 'off with her head!'"

"I'm relieved to hear that." And he was.

She dragged him forward; he couldn't shake her grip, so he walked. His wrist was next. Dots danced in front of his eyes.

"I'm saving the blood for the Gate. And I'll do it right on top of the portal this time; your Guardian was so kind to show you where it was while I was watching." She sounded like a girl expecting praise for a task well done. "Why aren't you afraid? I know you're in pain."

"I'm an adrenaline junkie."

"Vampires are affected by adrenaline?"

"I don't know." His breathing was harsh; he couldn't control it. "Maybe I'm just anticipating the moment Selah pops in front of you and stabs you through your heart. How much blood do you need for the Gate?"

Her teeth gleamed. "A whole lot of it."

"That's unfortunate," he said, and used his fangs to rip open his opposite wrist. A willing sacrifice.

"You stupid fuck!" she hissed, then yanked him forward by his broken wrist. Fast-dragging him over the ground toward the clearing.

They breached the treeline. He looked up, and his heart jumped into his throat.

Selah stared down at them, her wings outstretched, holding her aloft with a slow steady beat. Her crossbow was aimed at the demon's throat.

Cold steel landed on his palm. A gun. The blood made the grip slippery, it was in his left hand, but the demon was in close range. No need for precise targeting.

She whipped around, her sword raised over his head, and he unloaded the clip into her chest.

It wasn't going to be enough.

Two bolts from Selah's crossbow tore through the demon's bicep and forearm, forcing her to drop her sword—but there would be another in the demon's cache.

And she was still dragging Lucas toward the Gate. Within a second, she was at the Gate. Steel glinted against his throat, and she embraced Lucas against her chest like a lover, showing Selah her back… and Selah realized the brilliance of it.

She couldn't reach Lucas. The Gate prevented her from teleporting in front of the demon and taking him away. And if she teleported behind the demon, tried to kill her, she'd cut off Lucas's head.

The demon screamed in pain; Lucas had torn up the top of her arm and part of her shoulder with his fangs.

The demon would kill him for that. Would anyway.

Selah teleported, wrapped her arms around them both, preventing the demon from using her blade—and teleported again. Shrieks. Fire and sulphur. Hell.

The Pit.

The demon staggered dizzily, and Selah used her second of disorientation to haul Lucas from the demon's grasp. Selah teleported into the air, out of reach.

"Jesus Christ," Lucas whispered in horror.

The demon stared up at them, her face a mask of terror. Selah leveled the crossbow on her heart.

Another demon, covered in scarlet gleaming scales and wearing huge membranous wings, abandoned his torture of a pale, naked figure. A human, once. Not much remained, except the organs needed to scream. Lucas's body heaved in her grip as he fought not to vomit.

The new demon didn't look at them, but beyond them. He spoke in a sibilant tongue: the Old Language. Selah didn't know it, but she recognized one word. Morningstar.

"He's coming," the demon with Selah's face said. "Have mercy, Guardian."

"Her bargain is fulfilled. She's come back to Hell," Lucas said, his voice raw. "It won't be the field."

She glanced down at his hand. Thought of Olivia and the vampire with the freckles. Others she hadn't known. "Mercy," she said. "But not for you."

She adjusted her aim, firing the bolt through the heart of the once-human. Then she teleported her vampire away.

She floated with him in a warm sea. The Caribbean, just north of the Yucatan. He needed blood; he needed to heal. He drank from her amidst the soft swell of waves.

"You should have let me take you to Michael," Selah said quietly.

Lucas held up his arm. The bones had fused back together. "It just aches a little." A wave rolled beneath them, a slow lift and drop. "I should return to Ashland soon. Tell them it's over."

Over. She couldn't speak for a long moment. "Yes," she finally said. "And I need to return to Caelum. Soon."

"Yes."

Making love in the ocean wasn't as easy as in a pool; she used her wings to steady them, to act as a raft. Afterward, they drifted in the path of the moonlight.

After a while, she said again, "Soon. There are sharks in the water."

He turned lazily and stared at her with a bemused expression. "Is that a lawyer joke?"

"Maybe a vampire one, because they're probably drawn by the blood. From when you bit me."

"I can't fault them for wanting a nibble of you, too," he said as they landed on his bed in a wet tangle. "I need to call Pierre and Marguerite."

She lowered her shields, felt the surge of power when he dropped his. "I think they'll know."

Selah left Lucas sleeping at dawn and teleported directly to Michael's side. She arrived in the center of Caelum, in a courtyard that only she and the Doyen could access. A fountain was before him, and he stood at the low wall, holding a sword.

Not, Selah noted with a sudden lump in her throat, one of his swords. "Was that Jeremiah's?"

The Doyen's eyes were fully obsidian. His enormous black wings arched over his head. "Yes." He let go the weapon. It slipped soundlessly into the fountain's pool and sank. His bronze hands fisted; his knuckles were white.

She looked away. Around them, Caelum rose in a coruscating vision of white. Temples and domes, spires and columns. The sun hung in a brilliant blue sky.

"If you have come to tell me you want to Fall or Ascend," he said softly, "I might kill you."

She blinked, then caught the slight curving of his hard mouth. Her laughter didn't echo in the marble courtyard; his did.

"I know you are too much the Guardian to do either," he said when it faded. "But you are here for something." He vanished his wings and toga, replaced them with his linen tunic and trousers. His arms crossed over his broad chest.

"To change," she said. "The others, those who Ascended—they didn't have anything but this." She waved her arm in a wide arc. "You do not think it is enough?"

She couldn't read his expression. "No. Not after a while. They needed something of their own, but there was only this."

"Yes. That's what they thought, but they never asked. I cannot decide if their determination to have no other life but a Guardian's was an indication that I chose well when I transformed them, or if their assumption that I would deny their wills if they wanted more than a Guardian's life was my failure. Perhaps it is both." He studied her for a long moment. "What is it you want, Selah?"

"Both," she said. "I want both."

She wasn't beside him when he awoke. Lucas sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for the hollow pain of her absence to fade. It didn't.

He called Pierre first. Calculated distance and time. Made a reservation at a hotel. Packed a bag.

Thirty minutes after sunset, he was on the road. He had two names: Hugh Castleford and Colin Ames-Beaumont.

The second would be easier to find; any member of the San Francisco community would probably know where to find a beautiful, warm, tanned, human-drinking, nosferatu-born vampire.

And that vampire would know how to find Selah.

"Where are we going?" she said from the passenger seat, her heels propped against the dashboard, and he almost drove off the highway.

"Holy mother of God! Fuck me!" He screeched to a halt on the side of the road.

"Is that an angel joke?" She closed her eyes. "That was bad. I'm going to Hell."

He stared at her. "You've been. And back."

"That I have. You, too. It probably won't be the last time, either." Her blue eyes were sparkling with amusement. "So where are you going?"

He ran his hands through his hair, then slapped them back down on the steering wheel. "Nowhere. Now. What are you doing here?"

She pursed her lips. "Feeding you? You've got no one else."

"No."

"Doing my duty? Protecting Ashland from further demon attacks?"

Her impish grin nearly undid him. "No," he said.

"Splitting my time between you and Caelum? Half of eternity is still eternity. So I've got evenings off now. Though," she added softly, "you might say that I'm on call. If I'm needed. But there are a lot of time zones if we need to make up for hours lost; half of them are always dark. You didn't get my message?"

He shook his head. "What message?"

She palmed her cell phone, then made it disappear. "On your answering machine. I called to say I'd be late. Nosferatu in Denmark."

"I didn't check." Something in his chest swelled, a bright electric ache. And it felt incredible. "You're staying?"

"I've got a Gift," she said quietly, and brushed her fingers over his lips. "Not just to escape whenever I want, and not just to gobut to return."

"And you will?"

"Every night." Her gaze searched his. "I don't know what this is yet. I do know that being with you is good… better than anything else. I think I know what it'll become."

What was it? Extraordinary pleasure, just from her presence. Every moment.

He thought he knew what it was, too. And his brain was working perfectly well. His body.

His heart.

She kissed him. Those lips had been dangerous. But they were his now, and he'd risk Hell again for another taste of them.

"Let's go home, then," he said when she pulled away.

"That's exactly where I want to be," she said. And this time, he was the one to take her there.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven